Mexico City, Mexico – Despite having a well-paying tech job back home, Li Daijing made a bold decision to leave China and assist her cousin in running a restaurant in Mexico City last year. The 30-year-old from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, saw the move as an exciting adventure and an opportunity to chart her own path. She also harbors ambitions of starting an online business importing furniture from China to Mexico.
“I want more,” Li expressed. “I want to be a strong woman. I want independence.”
Li is part of a growing wave of Chinese migrants seeking new opportunities abroad, driven by a combination of factors including China’s slowing economy, high youth unemployment, and strained international relations, particularly with the United States. While the U.S.-Mexico border has seen tens of thousands of Chinese apprehended attempting to enter the U.S., many are opting to settle in Mexico, attracted by the country’s proximity to the U.S. and burgeoning business opportunities.
Surge in Chinese Migration to Mexico
Official data from the Mexican government shows that 5,070 temporary residency visas were issued to Chinese nationals last year, doubling the previous year’s total. This makes China the third-largest source of migrants to Mexico, following the United States and Colombia.
Mexico’s appeal for new Chinese immigrants lies in the deep-rooted diaspora that has fostered family and business networks over the decades. The presence of Chinese multinationals expanding operations in Mexico to access U.S. markets has also drawn migrants.
“A lot of Chinese started coming here two years ago — and these people need to eat,” said Duan Fan, owner of the “Nueve y media” restaurant in Mexico City’s Roma Sur neighborhood. Duan, who hails from Sichuan, serves spicy cuisine from his home province and has seen the growing demand for authentic Chinese food among the new wave of migrants.
Duan himself arrived in Mexico in 2017 to work with his uncle in the wholesale business. Like many of the new arrivals, Duan’s story reflects the changing demographics of Chinese migration to Mexico. In contrast to earlier generations of Chinese immigrants, many of whom hailed from southern China, particularly Guangdong, the latest migrants are coming from various regions across the country.
New Communities Forming in Mexico City
Much of the recent Chinese migration is concentrated in Mexico City, as evidenced by census data from Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). Unlike earlier generations that gravitated towards northern Mexico, particularly in states like Baja California, today’s Chinese immigrants are forming new communities in the capital.
One such area is Viaducto-Piedad, a middle-class neighborhood near Mexico City’s historic Chinatown. Since the late 1990s, this district has been home to a growing Chinese population, with immigrants not only establishing businesses but also creating spaces for religious and cultural events.
“Viaducto-Piedad is recognized by the Chinese themselves as Mexico City’s true ‘Chinatown,’” said Monica Cinco, a specialist in Chinese migration and director of the EDUCA Mexico Foundation. Cinco explained that the area has become a hub for the Chinese community, with stores, restaurants, and schools catering to the needs of Chinese residents.
Meanwhile, in downtown Mexico City, Chinese entrepreneurs are reshaping entire neighborhoods by opening wholesale businesses and taking over commercial buildings. This expansion, while boosting the economy, has also caused tensions with local residents and businesses who feel they are being displaced by the influx of Chinese-owned enterprises.
Economic Aspirations and Challenges
The new generation of Chinese immigrants in Mexico is diverse in terms of their motivations and backgrounds. Some, like 33-year-old Dong Shengli from Beijing, are drawn by the potential for business opportunities. Dong moved to Mexico to help manage a mini-market selling Chinese products and has since taken a job with a wholesaler importing knockoff designer goods.
Despite having a background working at China’s National Energy Commission, Dong sees potential in Mexico’s growing Chinese commercial sector. However, his family remains in China, and he admits that the distance poses a challenge. “My wife and my parents are in China. My mother is elderly, she needs me,” he said.
For others, like Tan, a 50-year-old from Guangdong Province, the motivation to leave China stems from a desire for greater personal freedoms. Tan, who declined to give his full name due to concerns about his family’s safety back home, arrived in Mexico this year after becoming disillusioned with what he described as China’s increasingly repressive political climate.
“It’s not just the oppression in the workplace, it’s the mentality,” Tan said. “I can feel the political regression, the retreat of freedom and democracy.”
Tan’s observations about the vibrant protest culture in Mexico City resonated with him. The frequent demonstrations on the capital’s main avenues, he noted, were a visible sign of the freedom of expression he craved back in China.
Mexico: A New Land of Opportunity
For Li Daijing, Mexico City represents a land of untapped opportunity. Unlike many Chinese immigrants who have relatives in the U.S. to help them settle there, Li said she is determined to make a life for herself in Mexico. She left China not only to escape the competitive pressures of the Chinese workplace but also due to the high cost of living, particularly the prohibitive price of buying a home.
“In China, everyone saves money to buy a house, but it’s really expensive to get one,” she explained.
Confident and ambitious, Li is optimistic that her skills as a former sales promoter for Tencent Games will help her succeed in Mexico. Though she has yet to meet many Chinese women like herself in the city—young, single, and entrepreneurial—Li remains undaunted. She has been selling furniture imported from China on Mercado Libre, Mexico’s largest e-commerce platform, and envisions one day running her own furniture business.
“I’m not married, I don’t have a boyfriend, it’s just myself,” she said. “So I’ll work hard and struggle.”
As the wave of Chinese migration to Mexico continues to grow, Li and others like her are navigating the challenges and opportunities of building new lives in a country that is becoming an increasingly popular destination for Chinese migrants looking to start fresh.