China in the World, in Italy
Prato town square
Prato, in the heart of Tuscany, is home to the largest Chinese immigrant population in Italy, so it is appropriate that Monash University's Prato Centre has just hosted a landmark conference on Chinese economic and social integration throughout the world.
The conference, 'China in the World', brought together leading international experts who compared models of Chinese integration from around the world, including Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, and the USA with the aim of reflecting on the situation in Prato.
Professor Loretta Baldassar, Director of the Prato Centre, said the conference reflected Monash University’s commitment to local engagement and to research that is relevant to our local area.
"We wanted to host this conference as part of the Prato Centre's tenth anniversary celebrations as it reflects our 10 year history of hosting key international conferences on migration related themes. Chinese migration was chosen as our key theme this year as it has become an issue of significant social, economic and political concern in the region.
"There are currently an estimated 35 million Chinese people living outside China and their experiences of integration in different countries have been markedly different," said Professor Baldassar.
"We wanted to draw on these experiences with the aim of facilitating greater integration of the Chinese population here in Prato, which has already contributed significantly to the local economy.”
"Chinese migration in Italy has been occurring for nearly a century and there is a growing number of first-generation immigrants living here, who increasingly regard Italy as home. This trend is part of the changing social fabric of Prato and we are perfectly situated to investigate this."
The conference brought together leading experts on the Chinese diaspora and culture from institutions in the USA, Canada, the UK, France, and Italy as well as from Monash University and the University of Melbourne. It was supported by the International Metropolis Project (Canada) and the Australian Multicultural Foundation with additional funding for simultaneous translation to English, Italian and Chinese provided by the Region of Tuscany and the Province of Prato.
The conference followed on from the fourth Chinese in Prato and second Wenzhouese Diaspora symposia. These annual events are organised by Wenzhou University and the Monash Prato Centre in collaboration with the Prato Province and the Prato branch of the University of Florence. The majority of Chinese now living in Prato are originally from the region of Wenzhou.
Publications of the papers of the Symposia and the China in the World Conference are planned.
The Prato Centre, founded in 2001, is Monash University's gateway to Europe. Next year’s local engagement theme is likely to be innovation in the textile industry, another of the key features of Prato’s history and its contemporary identity.