Afro-Chinese Labour Migration

Abstract

Labour migration is, perhaps, the most widely discussed economic issue today. Yet, its underpinning theory and its empirical tests have remained largely Western-centric. In turn, the causes, effects, and policy options for the substantial, but widely neglected, Afro-Chinese labour migration, are poorly understood. By systematising existing data, this article shows that Afro-Chinese labour migration experience is far more complex than what neoclassical economics suggests. Driven, or, at least moulded, not so much by the migrant as a rational utility-maximising individual but by holistic processes of ‘circular, combined and cumulation causation’, Afro-Chinese migration, and Afro-Chinese relations, more generally, have contributed to economic growth, but at the cost of much socio-spatial displacement, and socio-ecological degradation. Added to these social costs is widespread labour exploitation. So, the insidious attempts by the state, business enterprise, corporate finance, and capital to consider migration as a ‘spatial fix’ for economic growth are questionable. Seeking to wall out migrants, embarking on widespread surveillance, pursuing migrant scape-goating, and framing migration as a Malthusian problem are, however, not a panacea. The social costs of migration need to be directly redressed, among others, by redesigning the institutions that shape the conditions of labour. Doing so would require leaving behind neoclassical economics theories of migration and exposing their vested interests. Social economics theories and theorising that more comprehensively address the labour migration problematique and strongly emphasise the coupling of migration, economic, and social policy can usefully be considered as alternatives.

Keywords:

• Migration
• China
• Africa
• social economics

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Dr. Wang, Professor Turok, and the reviewers of The Forum for Social Economics for very helpful feedback.

Notes

1 Various studies suggest that the size of Chinese migrant population in Africa increased from 80,000 to over 750,000 between 1980 and 2006 (Ancharaz, 2011; Mohan et al., 2014, pp. 3–6). More recently, these migrants are estimated to be between one and two million people (see, for example, French, 2014, p. 26; Bodomo & Ma, 2010, p. 286). They work in a wide range of sectors, from mining and small-scale manufacturing to trading. The population of Africans in China is much less, but substantial nevertheless. Currently, there are nearly 500,000 Africans (Bodomo & Ma, 2010, pp. 283–284) who live in China. These Africans work in various professions, including education, diplomacy, and entertainment. Guandzhou is the single most important place of settlement for African migrants. It is estimated that, alone, Guandzhou hosts 130,000 Africans (Lee, 2014, p. 20). The rest live in cities such as Yiwu (Ciss é, 2015, p. 50). Much has also been written about the estimated 150,000 Chinese professionals who were sent to Africa to work in the agricultural, transport, and telecommunications sectors in the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s (see Mung, 2008, p. 95) but, today, the range of activities in which Chinese migrants are involved is much wider. For example, it is estimated that there are between 700 and 800 Chinese companies in Africa, operating in 49 out of the 54 countries on the continent. Together, these companies employ about 80,000 Chinese workers (see Mung, 2008, p. 95).

2 Ghana requires US$650 billion to reclaim environment—Prof. Frimpong Boateng’, Peacefmonline.com/pages/local/social/201801/341752.php (accessed 23 January 2018).