Carling, Jørgen, and Heidi Østbø Haugen. "Mixed Fates of a Popular Minority: Chinese migrants in Cape Verde". In China Returns to Africa: A Rising Power and a Continent Embrace, edited by Chris Alden, Daniel Large, and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, 319-337. London: Hurst and Company, 2009.

Carling, Jørgen, and Heidi Østbø Haugen. "Mixed Fates of a Popular Minority: Chinese migrants in Cape Verde". In China Returns to Africa: A Rising Power and a Continent Embrace, edited by Chris Alden, Daniel Large, and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, 319-337. London: Hurst and Company, 2009.

• Whereas Chinese migration into most parts of Africa has met with resentment, skepticism, and occasionally violence, the sizable Chinese community in Cape Verde is general popular among natives, with 85% of Verdeans believing that they contributed to national development, approve European immigrants, and far above African immigrants (319).
• The Chinese government has a long history in Cape Verde, being one of the first to open an embassy in 1975, providing political support during one-party rule, remaining an key economic partner following the reintroduction of democracy in 1991, and funding numerous high-profile infrastructural projects (319-320).
• Until recently, very few Chinese actually resided in Cape Verde, with sailors occasionally coming to the islands or supervisors temporarily residing there for development projects. It was not until the late 1990s when significant numbers of Chinese, just under a thousand by the 2000s, migrated to Cape Verde (320).
  The first Chinese-owned shop in Cape Verde was opened in 1995, with additional small retailers operating by Chinese opening throughout the late 1990s and 2000s on all inhabited islands. Most products are low quality goods from Zhejiang province, sold below market rates in Cape Verde, but much higher than Chinese prices (320-321).
  Since the original waves of migration in the 1990s, the competition for retail positions in Cape Verde has become much fiercer, with Chinese businesses being forced to drastically lower their prices or improve the quality of goods sold to remain competitive (324-325). Some Chinese have branched into auto-shops to escape market pressures, but generally Chinese ownership remains confined to retain, meaning that competition remains intense (325). Innovation and expansion remains stifled partially from structural factors, as innovators will quickly have their methods copied, while failures are esp. costly in an environment with low profit margins (326).Some sources of tension do exist between Chinese migrants and Verdeans, particularly over the perceived poor quality of Chinese goods, and the shitty treatment of Verdean employees in Chinese stores (334-335).Migration is largely controlled through local connections or family networks, with new immigrants either being asked over by families or coming because they heard of opportunities from shared local networks. Migration and small retailing in Cape Verde is now almost entirely dominated by those from Wenzhou district in Zhejiang (322-323).
• Chinese developmental projects often award contracts to Chinese companies, whose professionals and executives are given opportunities to enter high-value markets in Cape Verde. Chinese investment in multiple sectors, including telecoms and real estate has been increasing in recent years, facilitated by the Chinese government (327-328).
• The domination of the retail industry by Chinese, and the downward pressure they have exerted on the prices of consumer goods means that Verdeans credit the Chinese with improving their access to basic goods, increasing public goodwill towards the Chinese (329).
  Moreover, Chinese immigrants have neither undercut domestic manufacturing, which did not focus on consumer goods, nor stolen Verdean jobs, as they have created a new employment sectors separate from those existing prior to the 1990s in Cape Verde (330-331).
  The association of Chinese immigrants with domestic corruption, the source of violence against other Chinese communities -- including recent riots against Chinese in the Solomon Islands -- is absent in Cape Verde, where the incidence of corruption is generally low (331-332).
  Chinese immigrants in Cape Verde are, however, becoming increasingly associated with corruption, as large Chinese investors attempt to manipulate Verdean law, sometimes with success, and anti-corruption measures tend to disproportionately target the Chinese (332).The Chinese also do not pose a threat to the national identity of Verdeans, who are a mixed people from both European and African roots, and appreciate diversity as a cultural value. Many Chinese support this value, and appreciate Verdean openness as opposed to the racism often encountered in Europe (333).