Overseas Chinese

Mexican, Central, South American Chinese were brought over as Coolies. I imagine they played a role mixed between an indentured servant or a slave, given how the British Empire played. The Chinese were predominately (captured) from the SiYi (4yap) rural counties of Guangdong, others were mislead of El Dorado in America before becoming indentured servants to pay for the trip. For many, they couldn't afford the trip back, so they stayed. Those in Mexico were deported because of mass xenophobia.

Chinese in Southeast Asia are the oldest communities abroad. They're predominantly represented by the Hokkien community originally from Fujian. They were a sea farring people into trade (thus many worshipped Mazu), and I'd imagine back then they settled in different nations for reasons of commerce. There's other varieties as well, including Teochew, another Min-Nan speaking people, Hakka, and etc.

The waves of migration are varied. Many are related to the tumulutous times in the late 1800's, either that be the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, the Chinese Civil War (Warlord Era), or whatever, Southern China -- Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian were unstable. It was crippling poor, famine was a possibility, and anywhere else seemed like a better life.

Post 2000's? Many moved abroad either because of estate planning, or they sought to migrate out of rural communities. Many of Europe's Chinese hail from Wenzhou, although publicized as entrepreneurial, their province is a laughable backwater. The Chinese in Africa likewise are different because there's been governmental sponsored company incentives for them to work there. And some do stay, because they see an opportunity in the newlands vs compared to home. Each overseas Chinese community has a story of how they got there. It's not a monolithic group, which reflects on the cuisine. Indian-Chinese is Hakka influenced. Korean-Chinese is Shandong influenced. Japanese-Chinese is Cantonese influenced, etc. There's actual subtle, a bit of a culture blend in true multicultural cities, whether that be Singapore or Hong Kong where the groups didn't outbreak into major turf wars, like the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars. So in essence, many Chinese are abroad, all for different reasons. Much like how Western Europeans are found throughout the world, using the latin alphabet. The Chinese have had a much more limited influence on the natives.