From Alien to Citizen - The Integration of the Chinese in Mauritius
H.Ly Tio Fane-Pineo & Sir Edouard Lim Fat

The contribution of the Chinese to the development of Mauritius is striking. The authors remind us that such outstanding achievement was made possible thanks to the benevolence of British authorities towards the first settlers, but also to the Chinese acumen in taking advantage of changing colonial policies and evolution of the economy.

As long as the Chinese immigrant laboured under the legal provisions limiting his activities as alien, he had to restrict his means of living to trade, but when at Independence the status of citizen was conferred on him, he lost no time in taking the lead in the development of Port Louis as a centre of world finance and a major market for developing world commerce.

This book successfully ties the past to the present, and is an indispensable reference work for the historian, the politician, the economist as well as for the sociologist.