中国人移民海外历史悠久,近百余年来规模最大,至今已超过3000万人。中国海外移民对许多国家和地区的社会经济发展产生了重要影响。文章概要回顾了近代中国各类型海外移民的历史,分析了海外移民的世界分布格局及其形成原因。在揭示海外移民为当地资源开发、经济发展、社会进步、民族独立作出重要贡献基础上,对华人族群民族意识、文化属性、传统华人社会结构、双重认同、不同地域华人族群特色以及海外移民不同程度融入所在国主流社会的类型等进行了研究。文章强调,当前对不同地域华人族群所居地位和作用,应加深理解,在振兴中华进程中,国家应高度重视这一族群能力的发挥。

There was a long migration history of overseas Chinese. The largest scale of the migration appeared in the last hundred years. At present the population of ethnic Chinese amounted to over 30,000 thousand. Ethnic Chinese have exerted important impacts on social and economic development of many countries and regions. This paper briefly reviews the migration history of overseas Chinese which emigrated in different patterns, analyzes its distribution pattern in the world and how it came into being. On the basis of revealing the important contribution of ethnic Chinese to the local resources exploitation, economic development, social progress and national independence, research on the following aspects of the ethnic Chinese was done: their Chinese national consciousness, cultural attribute, traditional social structure, their political, racial and cultural identification, their distinctive characteristics in different regions and different patterns of degrees to which ethnic Chinese integrated themselves into the mainstream of local society. The paper emphasizes that at present the position and the role of ethnic Chinese in different regions should be deeply understood, in the process of China's vitalization, the Chinese government should highly appreciate the ability of these ethnic groups.