The client side of everyday corruption in Central and Eastern Europe: The case of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Romania
| Author | Jing Hiah |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370819830296 |
| Published date | 01 November 2020 |
| Date | 01 November 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
830296EUC0010.1177/1477370819830296European Journal of CriminologyHiah
research-article2019
Article
European Journal of Criminology
2020, Vol. 17(6) 877 –895
The client side of everyday
© The Author(s) 2019
corruption in Central and
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Eastern Europe: The case of
https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370819830296
DOI: 10.1177/1477370819830296
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Chinese migrant
entrepreneurs in Romania
Jing Hiah
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Abstract
This article provides an in-depth understanding of the corruption experiences of migrant
entrepreneurs in transition economies. Drawing from ethnographic research, including 50
qualitative interviews with Chinese migrant entrepreneurs active in wholesale markets, non-
governmental organizations, and supervisory agencies in Romania, this article demonstrates that
normalization of corruption by migrant entrepreneurs should be understood in the historical
context of the wholesale market as a product of post-1989 transition in Central and Eastern
Europe. At a social-interactional level, normalization of corruption is revealed through how
migrants use decriminalizing language to refer to corruption and perceive corruption as a
survival strategy by public officials. Moreover, the legal and outsider status of migrants and their
knowledge of the language, rules and laws further determine migrants’ position as clients of ‘on
the spot’ corruption.
Keywords
corruption, entrepreneurship, immigration, normalization, Romania, transition
Introduction
Corruption, generally defined as the misuse of public power for private benefit, is
reported to be pervasive and affecting the everyday lives of the inhabitants of the transi-
tion societies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) (Börzel et al., 2010: 124–5; Neamtu
and Dragos, 2014: 71; but see Saar, 2004: 513). Transition societies refer to countries
Corresponding author:
Jing Hiah, Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht University, Room B209, Padualaan 14,
Utrecht, 3584 CH, The Netherlands.
Email: j.w.hiah@uu.nl
878
European Journal of Criminology 17(6)
transitioning from a centrally planned to a post-socialist society. Although corruption has
been studied widely, most research focuses on the causes and effects of corruption at the
societal level or the role of public institutions in relation to corruption (Torsello and
Venard, 2015: 34). Studies on the meanings of corruption on an individual level are
scarce. Research that does address the corruption experiences of individuals in turn focus
on public bureaucracies (Ivković and Shelley, 2005) or elites (Grødeland, 2010). There
is limited attention to everyday life accounts of common people and small-time entrepre-
neurs who are on the client side of a transaction involving bribery (but see Jancsics,
2013; Vorley and Williams, 2015) and even a great lack of attention to the impact of cor-
ruption on newcomers such as migrants in the transition countries of CEE (although
there have been several studies on the impact of corruption on migrants in the developing
countries of Africa; for example, Madsen, 2004; Willemse, 2015). This study aims to
contribute to this literature by examining the everyday corruption experiences of Chinese
migrant entrepreneurs in Romania.
Romania provides us with a relevant case for studying (anti-)corruption. Despite the
implementation of various anti-corruption policies since Romania’s accession talks to
the European Union, Romania still scores high on corruption indicators (Transparency
International, 2016). Recently, wide public unrest regarding the plans of the newly estab-
lished government to pardon or reduce the sentences of Romanian politicians who are
guilty of corruption related to abuse of power (Aljazeera, 2017) has again made corrup-
tion a hotly debated topic in Romania. Yet Romania today is not only dealing with high-
level corruption, but, according to the European Commission (2016), corruption in local
government is especially problematic. Furthermore, Romania is an interesting context in
which to study how corruption affects migrant entrepreneurs, because, unlike other EU
member states in the former socialist bloc, it has been able to foster an economy in which
relatively many small enterprises operate (Vorley and Williams, 2015).
Corruption is also relevant to the particular case of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs that
this contribution focuses on. The few studies conducted on Chinese migrants in CEE
report how Chinese immigration cannot be seen as separate from the history of corruption
in these transition countries (Nagy, 2011; Wundrak, 2009). Yet these studies only briefly
glance at the corruption experiences of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs (but see Chang,
2013). Exploring the corruption experiences of Chinese immigrants can provide valuable
insights into how corruption becomes accepted and institutionalized and impacts new-
comers such as migrants and their (economic) incorporation into the host society.
To understand the corruption experiences of migrant entrepreneurs, this article pre-
dominantly utilizes insights from (legal) anthropological literature (Anders and Nuijten,
2007; Torsello and Venard, 2016) that approach corruption from a contextual perspective
and, in doing so, ‘reveal the systemic and structural dimensions of corruption’ (Anders
and Nuijten, 2007: 2). Accordingly, corruption in this article is considered not as an indi-
vidual act, but as a phenomenon that is institutionalized and embedded in the power
relations of society (Anders and Nuijten, 2007: 15). Corruption is not behaviour that
deviates from the norm, but rather behaviour that expresses the norm (Van de Bunt and
Nelen, 2012: 7–13), granting that moral boundaries exist that delineate which bribes are
acceptable to pay and which are not. Although these boundaries are informal, they are
institutionalized and consequently adhered to, shaping the interests and strategies of
Hiah
879
public officials and citizens (Stefes, 2007: 6). Normalization of corruption is addressed
in organizational criminology. Yet organizational criminology primarily focuses on
behaviour in an organizational setting, the perspective of those committing corruption,
that is, the offender perspective and corruption as white-collar crime (Ashforth and
Anand, 2003; Van Wingerde and Van de Bunt, 2015). On the other hand, anthropological
approaches to corruption focus on the everyday encounters of petty corruption by com-
mon people (Blundo and Olivier De Sardan, 2006: 70–109). Petty corruption refers to
relatively small sums of money or exchanges of favours between street-level public offi-
cials and ordinary citizens (Van de Bunt and Nelen, 2012: 13–15; Wallace and Latcheva,
2006: 83), which is the focus of this article. Furthermore, this article focuses on the cat-
egory of ‘on the spot’ corruption, which refers to corrupt transactions between two par-
ties who did not have any prior relationship (Jancsics, 2013). In this contribution I aim to
answer the following questions: What are the everyday corruption experiences of Chinese
migrant entrepreneurs? How have Chinese migrant entrepreneurs normalized their expe-
riences with petty corruption? And how are the everyday corruption experiences of
Chinese migrant entrepreneurs embedded in the broader societal context of a post-1989
Romania in transition?
In what follows, I first discuss the notion of small-scale bribery in transition societies
and outline the research context of Chinese migrant entrepreneurship in post-1989
Romania. I then provide insights into the methods and fieldwork of this study. Thereafter,
I present the perspectives of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs on small-scale bribery
through ethnographic materials focusing on the meanings of corruption, the strategies
developed to benefit from corruption, and the role of migrant status in relation to corrup-
tion. Finally, I present my conclusions.
Background
The normalization of petty corruption in transition societies
Anthropological insights into corruption underline the importance of the broader politi-
cal, economic and cultural context in which corruption and discourses of corruption take
place (Anders and Nuijten, 2007). Structural corruption in former socialist states should
be considered as a transitional phenomenon (Börzel et al., 2010: 124–7; Neef, 2002).
During the transition period, the retreat of the state took place faster than the legislation
to control market activity could be implemented (Wallace and Latcheva, 2006: 84),
which led to a growth of the informal economy and consequently corruption (Börzel
et al., 2010). The informal economy refers to a process of income generation that is
unregulated by the institutions of society, in a legal and social environment in which
similar activities are regulated (Castells and Portes, 1989: 12). The informal economy
comprises two types of activities: first, illegal activities that break regulations and laws
and, second, a-legal activities, those activities not covered by regulations and laws. In
transition contexts, various activities were a-legal because existing laws were inadequate
to cover them during the earlier days of transition, such as street trading but also immi-
gration. Other activities have continuously been outside the law, such as self-provision-
ing, or activities that are partially regulated, such as the family firm (Wallace and
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