Michele Borzoni


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WORKFORCE - Chinese textile industry

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The Macrolotto district of Prato houses one of the largest concentration of Chinese in Europe. Chinese labourers began settling in Prato in the late 1980s and they slowly transformed it into a low-cost textile capital. 

WORKFORCE - Chinese textile industry

Many Chinese immigrants arrived in Italy by relying on human traffickers, who have built a market of Chinese workers specialized in the textile sector.

According to the municipality there are more then 11,500 legal Chinese immigrants, out of Prato’s total population of 187,000. But it is estimated that the city has an additional 25,000 illegal immigrants, a majority of them Chinese.

After the death of 7 Chinese workers, burned into a factory in the early December 2013, the Tuscany government has launched a campaign of controls on the safety of Chinese companies.