Chinatowns in Europe
Several urban Chinatowns exist in major European capital cities. There is Chinatown, London, England, and two Chinatowns in Paris, France: One where many Vietnamese have settled in the Quartier chinois in the 13th (13ème) arrondissement of Paris, and the other in Belleville, Paris in the northwest of Paris. In 2002 and 2003, Berlin, Germany was considered establishing a Chinatown. A growing Chinatown can be found in Dublin, Ireland.
Some European Chinatowns have extraordinary histories. As a legacy of European colonialism in Asia, many Asian subjects of Continental empires immigrated "back" to the so-called "mother country" after various independence movements took hold. For example, Chinese Indonesians and Chinese Surinamers have settled in the Netherlands. In 1998, many more Chinese Indonesian immigrants arrived to escape the violent pogroms in Indonesia towards ethnic Chinese (mainly as a result of the Asian financial crisis of 1997). Singaporeans and Malaysians of Chinese heritage and Hong Kong Chinese have migrated to the United Kingdom. Some Chinese from the former Portuguese colony of Macau have resettled in Portugal.
After the defeat of the French in the Indochina War in 1954, in which France lost its last vestiges of its colonial empire (French Indochina consisted of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), many Vietnamese political exiles and refugees came to Paris. And again, after the fall of Saigon, at the close of the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese "boat people" came to France and Germany in the late 1970s and 1980s and began settling in Paris's Chinatown. Apart from the Western sphere of influence in China, the country as a whole was not a colony of a foreign maritime power. Many mainland Chinese, legal and undocumented immigrants, have especially contributed to the development of Chinese communities in Europe. There has been new immigration from the Zhejiang province of China, many of the first-generation immigrants who work in the unskilled service industries of Paris.
A few Chinese Filipinos settled Spain after Spanish-American War in 1898. As a result of Spanish influence in Latin America, many ethnic Chinese went to Spain after independence. Chinese Mexicans settled Spain after its independence in 1821, while some Chinese Cubans and Chinese Puerto Ricans settled after Spanish-American War. Their countries were settled by Chinese during Spanish territorial period. Many Chinese, whose ancestors settled Latin America several years after independence from Spain, also came to Spain because of excessive poverty or political problems. For example, Chinese Peruvians settled Spain because of the messy rule of General Juan Velasco Alvarado. Chinese Argentines settled Spain caused by the dictatorship of Juan Peron. Many Chinese Brazilians settled in Portugal because of poverty. In contrast, there are also many well-educated new immigrants from Mainland China who work in many professional positions in Spain.
Belgium
The small Chinatown (Walloons: Quartier chinoise) of Brussels consists of two streets, rue Saint Géry and rue Antoine Dansaert. The area reflects more of a Pan-Asian area with various Asian ethnicities represented in the area businesses.
France
Paris boasts of le plus grand quartier chinois (the largest Chinatown) in Europe. Located in the 13th arrondissement, the area consists of Chinese, Vietnamese and Laotian merchants and other inhabitants, in high concrete towers and blocks. Roughly speaking, the area extends between and around the avenue d'Ivry and avenue de Choisy streets, east of the rue de Tolbiac. One major point of attraction is the Tang Frères and Paristore supermarkets, selling Asian products, located close to each other. Paris' Quartier chinois is home to several important institutions such as the Association des Résidents en France d'origine indo-chinoise. On the Chinese New Year, there is a great parade through the streets, with lion and dragon dances.
There are smaller areas elsewhere in Paris such as in Belleville on rude Rebelval.
Lyon also has a Chinatown, located around the Condorcet neighbourhood, in the 7th arrondissement. It is much smaller than Paris', consisting mainly of a couple of blocks around rue Passet and rue Pasteur.
Germany
A German Chinatown is found in the city of Dusseldorf. The English term Chinatown is used in German.
Hamburg had a historic Chinatown that existed during the 1920s to the 1940s, and destroyed by the Gestapo, with only a few remnants currently still remaining. During the Second World War, Germany's ethnic Chinese left for the United Kingdom.
Italy
Italy has a rapidly-growing Chinese population. The country has had a very small Chinese population since World War II, but most of the current population has arrived since the 1980s. Between 60,000 to 100,000 Chinese are thought to be living in Italy. Rome has several small Chinatown districts, called Las Chinatowns. The fastest-growing Roman Chinatown is in Esquilino.
Netherlands
Holland's Chinatown is located in the famed De Wallen red light district of Amsterdam. The Chinatown, with its location on Zeedijk Street, has expanded beyond the area. About 80 kilometers to the southwest, the city of Rotterdam also has a Chinatown, on West Kruiskade. The third Chinatown worth to be mentioned is in the city of The Hague (25 kilometers northwest of Rotterdam). The term "Chinatown" is used in the Dutch language. Indonesian Dutch of Chinese descent are included in the residents.
Chinese Indonesian restaurants were common in the Netherlands until new immigrants from Mainland China (many of whom speak English rather than Dutch) began arriving and opening "authentic Chinese cuisine" restaurants.
Serbia
Serbia's biggest Chinatown is located in the newer part of Belgrade. There are many Chinese stores all over the country. The biggest problem is that they sell low-quality products at low prices. This caused stagnation of the local clothing industry, especially in Novi Pazar. The majority of Chinese people arrived half-illegally after Milosevics wife gave them Serbian citizenship just to propagate Communism. Serbian Chinatowns don't have any special name; the term used is kinezi, which means Chinese people.
Spain
While there has been Chinese immigration to Spain, it has not been as much as in other European countries, such as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. There are about 100,000 Chinese in Spain. Most Chinese-Spanish residents are people whose ancestors were coolies from mainland China. Others are refugees from other places in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, and especially the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, while still others are economic immigrants from Taiwan and other southeast Asian countries. In Spain, Chinese immigrants tend not to form separate neighborhoods (the quintessential image of a Chinatown) but live in areas mixed with other immigrants. However, in some places, Chinese immigration is enough to give a Chinese color to some streets.
The most important example of a Spanish Chinatown is the Lavapiés neighborhood in Madrid, inhabited by mixed immigrants and Bohemian Spaniards. Barcelona, however, has had an area named Barrio Chino since the 1920s, in the old city between the Ramblas and the Parallel. The residents have been poor Spaniards and the area is marked by its prostitution, to the extent that any prostitution district of any Spanish city may be known as barrio chino, regardless of any Chinese presence, though the term doesn't imply a population of Chinese residents. The term came from an article whose author compared the state of the area with the popular image of foreign Chinatowns.
After the Spanish Miracle, Spain started receiving more Chinese immigrants, some of whom may have settled in the cheap Barrio Chino. As a result of the gentrification policy exemplified by the 1992 Olympic Games, the areas is being rebuilt as a chic neighborhood and the more neutral name of El Raval is preferred. Recent Chinese immigrants have established wholesale clothes business at La Ribera, Ronda San Pedro or Trafalgar street.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has several Chinatowns, and the most Chinatowns to be found in any single European country, including the older one in London, located in the Soho area.
There are plans to revive London's original Chinese district in Limehouse as part of the wider regeneration of East London. Other UK Chinatowns are found in the English cities of Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, and in the Scottish city of Glasgow.
Manchester's Chinatown on Faulkner Street is the largest in Britain. The Chinese British population, many of whom are immigrants from former British-ruled Hong Kong, has especially settled in the Greater Manchester area. However, Hong Kong immigration to the United Kingdom has leveled off over the years and there has been a rise in Mainland Chinese immigration to the country.