Moving to another country also means facing new challenges. One of them, perhaps the main ones, is finding a job. Likewise, others choose directly to start and set up their own businesses.
Walking down any street in Spain it is very common to see businesses run by Chinese citizens, whether they are bazaars, food or clothing stores. Given this situation, many wonder how it is possible that there are so many of these stores in Spain compared to others.
On the podcast ‘One and a half Chinese’ Lin and Jiajun, two young Chinese who live in Spain, have reflected on this reality and why it happens when “opening a business is quite expensive.”
The reason why the Chinese open businesses in Spain
Although they joke about taxes, they explain that the reality is that they lend money to relatives “as long as it was to open a business because you are trying to invest the money.
Another very important issue regarding borrowing and lending money among the Chinese is good reputation: «If someone talks bad about you for a loan, your name will go through all the mouths of all the Chinese in your community and it is very possible that that community don’t lend you money again».
They recognize that a good reputation in these matters “is almost the most important thing.” Furthermore, they joke about the shock that in countries like Spain contracts are used to lend money or not, while in China everything is subject to fame.
«There are no interests. For interest you ask the bank for the loan», emphasizes JiaJun. Likewise, Lin explains that one of the big problems that the first generation of Chinese in Spain had is that they did not know how to speak Spanish to understand a contract. “I think they will go with another second-generation boy to translate for him and he doesn’t understand it either,” they joke.
Many have reacted to these statements, which they described as very interesting. Even so, some users have had doubts about the role of the Treasury in money transfers between people.
Faced with these questions, some have responded that interest-free loans are possible and others have assured that they have certain tax exemptions during the first years.
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