Author: Carlton Jama Adams.

This article addresses some of the challenges faced by Africana immigrants in China from the perspective of structure and agency. Following a review of the core concepts in the literature is discussion of the structural changes currently evident in China and how these impact on the sense of agency of domestic migrants and foreign immigrants. This is followed by an overview of the literature of Chinese perceptions of race. That structural framework sets the stage for a discussion of the features of the contemporary Africana population in China followed by an explanation of the methodology used and profiles of the subjects. In the results section issues of home, reflexivity, structure and agency, relations with the Chinese, enclaves, race and religion and intimacy are discussed. The tentative conclusion is that for Africana immigrants agency is often enhanced by the deployment of their intellectual skills that are in demand in China but is constrained with regards to the exercise of religion and the pursuit of intimacy. Many Africana immigrants therefore experience an enhanced sense of subject well-being in the areas of cognition and material resource acquisition, impact positively on some aspects of Chinese structure, even while being constrained by other features of that structure.