Chinese immigrants on the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica: The economic adaptation of an Asian minority in a pluralistic society

This study documents the history of Chinese immigrants who settled on the Atlantic Coast of Costa Rica during the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Despite strongly racist sentiments against Asians and other immigrants, the Chinese adapted successfully on the Coast, in large measure, due to the fact that they retained basic aspects of their cultural identity, expressed through a number of institutions which were essential to their successful adaptation. Based on a pragmatism that allowed them to exploit to the maximum extent those opportunities available to them, the Chinese community structured the provision of logistic, social and economic support to its members, through family organizations, credit unions, and the elders' council. The Chinese associations were a social response designed to meet those needs not met by the family associations, particularly with respect to defending the community's interests and reinforcing group identity.Success in commerce was based on such cultural traditions as a strong work ethic and a pragmatic, opportunistic exploitation of social needs, unhindered by the social values and obligations held by others on the Coast. Rapid success in commerce meant a virtual monopoly in certain areas of the economy, such as the sale of liquor and the lottery. Adaptation also meant establishing unions with Hispanic women and acquiring Costa Rican nationality.The descendants of pure Chinese and Chinese-Hispanic unions who were born and raised on the Coast assimilated to Hispanic society, and the older immigrants attempted to enforce, through informal means, more rigid ethnic boundaries and reinforce ethnic identity through the establishment of a school.Social tension continues to be generated by the pull between those who wish to retain cultural identity through isolationist measures and those who see the need for greater participation in Hispanic society. The result has been an attempt to redefine ethnic boundaries to include assimilated elements of the community.As uneducated peasants with only the most rudimentary skills in the language and cultural traditions of Hispanic society, the immigrants chose pragmatically the means of subsistence that required the minimal skills, and settled in areas, such as the Atlantic Coast, that provided the best opportunities to newcomers.The arrival in large numbers of Taiwanese immigrants, though troublesome to the Mainlanders, has elicited some solidary responses from the latter, in what may be a repetition of previous events in the history of Chinese immigration in Costa Rica.