How Chinese elites secure over­seas status without leav­ing China

De­vel­op­ment sum­mary

Justin Robertson traces how in­vest­ment mi­grants ac­quire for­eign status, second pass­ports and res­id­en­cies while con­tinu­ing to live in China. The ana­lys­is con­nects this prac­tice of “mi­gra­tion without leav­ing” with house­hold re­gis­tra­tion, cap­it­al trans­fers and the reg­u­la­tion of in­vest­ment mi­gra­tion.

In­ter­views, di­git­al eth­no­graphy and ob­ser­va­tion at in­dustry con­fer­ences place these trans­ac­tions in grey zones where formal pro­hib­i­tions co­ex­ist with uneven en­force­ment and tacit tol­er­ance. In­vest­ment mi­gra­tion serves both do­mest­ic busi­ness and edu­ca­tion ad­vant­ages and the hedging of private wealth, while some actors con­tin­ue to move cap­it­al abroad and retain their Chinese house­hold re­gis­tra­tion.