As the Chinese government has purposefully built economic, social and political links with several African states in recent decades, new patterns of international migration have emerged. Notably, mixed-race families are increasingly visible in southern China, particularly Guangzhou, where there is a concentration of African traders. The few existing studies on this population have failed to pay attention to how, in the absence of state provision of or support for key public resources including health care and education, African-Chinese families are raising their children. We examined factors contributing to NGO successes and failures in facilitating these families’ wellbeing and integration into mainstream society, drawing on the theory of voluntary sector failure. Mixed-raced families are relatively isolated from mainstream society as well as formal/informal civil society organisations. We found select features of philanthropic paternalism, philanthropic amateurism, and what we term philanthropic mistrust, with implications for understanding voluntary sector growth in the Chinese context. © 2018 The Authors. International Journal of Social Welfare © 2018 Akademikerförbundet SSR (ASSR) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

China immigrants families service delivery voluntary sector failure

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