This book is the first to systematically study the motivations, relationships and impact of this migration. It focuses not just on the Chinese migrants but also on the perceptions of, and linkages to, their African 'hosts'. By studying this everyday interaction we get a much richer picture of whether this is South-South cooperation, as political leaders would have us believe, or a more complex relationship that can both compromise and encourage African development.
This book is the first to systematically study the motivations, relationships and impact of this migration. It focuses not just on the Chinese migrants but also on the perceptions of, and linkages to, their African 'hosts'. By studying this everyday interaction we get a much richer picture of whether this is South-South cooperation, as political leaders would have us believe, or a more complex relationship that can both compromise and encourage African development.
Chinese Migrants and Africa's Development: New Imperialists or Agents of Change?
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Overview
This book is the first to systematically study the motivations, relationships and impact of this migration. It focuses not just on the Chinese migrants but also on the perceptions of, and linkages to, their African 'hosts'. By studying this everyday interaction we get a much richer picture of whether this is South-South cooperation, as political leaders would have us believe, or a more complex relationship that can both compromise and encourage African development.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781780329192 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| Publication date: | 06/12/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 192 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Ben Lampert is a lecturer in the Development Policy and Practice Group at the Open University.
May Tan-Mullins is a human geographer at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China, having previously worked at the National University of Singapore and Durham University.
Daphne Chang is a staff tutor and a faculty associate of the Development Policy and Practice Group at the Open University.
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Chinese Migrants and Africa's Development
New Imperialists Or Agents of Change?
By Giles Mohan, Ben Lampert, May Tan-Mullins, Daphne Chang
Zed Books Ltd
Copyright © 2014 Giles Mohan, Ben Lampert, May Tan-Mullins and Daphne ChangAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78032-919-2
CHAPTER 1
THE CHINESE IN AFRICA: MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT BEYOND THE WEST
Introduction: African globalization and the emergence of China in Africa
Much of the discussion of China in Africa has been framed by oppositional discourses, which argue that the presence of Chinese people and firms is either uniformly 'bad' for Africans or resoundingly a 'good' thing. The most common of these are China's presence as a form of imperialism versus 'South–South' cooperation, large-scale importation of Chinese labour versus skills transfer, and exacerbating poor governance versus non-interference in sovereign states. These are important debates and ultimately link to big questions of change in the global order and the ideological perspectives of the powerful states involved. Yet, global restructuring and shifting power relations – the stuff of international relations and political economy – do not take place in the abstract. These changing relationships are about people on the move and the linkages between places, and so migration is central to them.
For much of the last century, when we think of foreign powers engaged in Africa we usually default to 'the West'. It is those European powers that colonized the continent, multinational corporations from the developed world, or the powerful US-based financial institutions which are seen as the key external actors engaging in Africa's (under)development. However, with the economic and political rise of a group of Asian countries, Brazil, Russia and a number of Middle Eastern states, the map of external intervention in Africa has grown massively more complex in the past decade. And accompanying these global shifts are migration flows of diplomats, traders, spouses, aid workers, students, tourists and construction workers. While African cities have always been cosmopolitan spaces, it is now common to see and hear an even greater diversity of peoples from across the globe.
It is the presence of China as a geopolitical actor and as a source of migrants that has provoked most attention, with claims that there are now as many as a million Chinese people living and working on the continent. In the twenty-five years that we have been researching in Africa, these growing Chinese connections have been very apparent. In many of the urban centres of southern Nigeria, if, as a Caucasian, you walk down the street, more often than not someone will shout Oyibo, the Nigerian Pidgin word meaning white person or foreigner. During fieldwork for this book in 2010, one of us, a white British male, was, for the first time, referred to in a similar street encounter in Lagos as Chinko, a somewhat disparaging reference to Chinese-made products which has also gained traction in both Ghana and Nigeria as a term for Chinese people. The rise of this expression reveals how commonplace it is to see people of East Asian origin on the streets and beaches and in the bars and shops of African cities. In our survey in Nigeria and Ghana, which we outline later in this chapter, around 75 per cent of respondents noted an increase in the number of Chinese people over the past five years. Moreover, the entry of Chinko into West African parlance attests to a profound sense of cultural difference that we will explore in this book.
Hence this book takes seriously Alden's (2007: 128) observation: 'The behaviour of thousands of newly settled Chinese businessmen and the conduct of the African communities in which they live and work will matter as much as the diplomacy and concessions made at the government level.' The book asks what does this migration mean for both the increasing number of Chinese migrants and their African 'hosts'? And how does this make us rethink the relationship between these new migration flows and development more broadly? The rest of this chapter addresses our major themes and the theoretical approaches we have used to try and understand them. In both cases we often highlight the most salient aspects and in the substantive chapters we explore these themes and theories in more depth as they help illuminate our empirical analysis. In this chapter we also outline our methodology and data collection, which has unfolded over five years and across four African countries.
The state of knowledge and the book's themes
As with our opening observation, the migration and development issue has also been subject to a heated debate that tends to reflect ideological standpoints as opposed to a focused engagement with reality. A starting point for assessing the reality is the number of migrants.
Dubious data While most observers accept that China has sent an increased number of workers to Africa, particularly in the last decade, a major problem in assessing these migration flows is that data are speculative. Table 1.1 sets out some of the estimates for a range of historical periods up to the present.
Notwithstanding the serious limitations of such data, they lend themselves to several interpretations. First, the data show that sizeable, long-standing Chinese migrant communities in South Africa and Mauritius date back to the colonial period and that more recent immigration consisted of 1980s arrivals from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Second, the data also show that the rapid increases in Chinese immigration to Africa over the past decade coincide not only with China's increased foreign direct investment (FDI) but also with China's trade with various African countries. Mung (2008) estimated the current number of Chinese workers in Africa to be within the range of 270,000 to 510,000 and in 2007 the Xinhua Press Agency estimated that as many as 750,000 Chinese might be working or living in Africa for extended periods (cited in French and Polgreen 2007). As noted above, more recent estimates now put the figure at around a million. Whatever the general picture for Africa, the greatest growth is found in countries with significant oil resources, notably Nigeria, Angola and Sudan.
This paucity of data highlights three further issues that need to be considered in any study of the Chinese in Africa. First, history matters in terms of understanding the periodization of migration and its relationship to geopolitical forces, which we discuss in Chapters 2 and 3. In turn, this shapes the second issue: we must have a sharper focus on the social and geographical characteristics of migrants. Third, and related to the earlier issue, is the question of context. As diasporas are bound by ethnic sameness, however fictitious, but dwell in multiple places, it is difficult to speak of a singular diasporic identity. So, a further issue is how space and place affect the nature of the Chinese migrant community and their developmental potential – something we return to below.
Ideological divisions Assessing the significance and impact of Chinese migrants is not just a function of data or the accuracy of the 'facts' we assemble. Playing into this are ideological debates about how we understand and interpret change. A recent example of such polarized debate concerns Chinese copper mines in Zambia where there have been a number of industrial problems over the past decade that have attracted international media coverage. Moreover, the issue has been scrutinized by Zambian and international civil society organizations (Fraser and Lungu 2007; Human Rights Watch 2011) which paint a picture of Chinese firms as the worst in terms of pay, labour conditions and workers' rights. In a rebuttal to some of these claims, Yan and Sautman (2013) produced data that suggest Chinese firms are no worse than non-Chinese firms and that the critique of these firms functions to paint western interests in a better light. Indeed, to claim that Chinese firms are 'worse' requires some kind of comparative analysis against which Chinese performance can be judged, but in most of these negative portrayals of China, Yan and Sautman argue, such a comparison was lacking.
Playing into these ideological and methodological problems are disciplinary divides that hinder a rounded understanding of the migration issue, so we develop a more interdisciplinary analysis of everyday China–Africa relations, drawing on economic sociology, human geography, anthropology, political science and gender studies. Most work on China in Africa has been economistic, focusing on trade, aid and investment flows, sometimes augmented by a case study or two (e.g. Power et al. 2012; Fessahaie and Morris 2013). There have been some analyses of the politics of these relations, but politics tends to be the formal arena of inter-state diplomacy and so focuses on elite actors in and around the state (e.g. Large 2009; Carmody et al. 2012; Holslag 2011). There have been some attempts to disaggregate the state with commentary on the ways that street-level bureaucrats in Africa seek advantage from Chinese businesses (e.g. Dobler 2008) or the regulatory weaknesses of particular African ministries in relation to Chinese firms (e.g. Haglund 2009). Relatively little work has been done on the engagement with China by civil society actors in Africa beyond a handful of studies on trade unions (e.g. Lee 2009; Baah and Jauch 2009) and business associations (e.g. Lee 2007).
In contrast to these economic and political analyses there is a small but growing body of work on the social and cultural underpinnings of the relationships between Chinese migrants in Africa and, increasingly, African migrants in China (e.g. Monson 2009; Hsu 2007; Haugen and Carling 2005; Bodomo 2010; Bredeloup 2012; Giese and Thiel 2012; Mohan and Lampert 2013). There is also some work on African attitudes to China and the Chinese (e.g. Sautman and Yan 2009; Ngome 2009; Shen and Taylor 2012) and Chinese attitudes towards Africa and Africans (Shen 2009; McNamee et al. 2012). These are proving invaluable for giving greater nuance to broad-brush claims about 'China' and 'Africa', though many of them lack an explicit theory of cultural encounter or exchange, or how these cultural relationships play into the political economy of development. This is changing (e.g. Ayers 2012), but much more work could be done on trying to integrate political economy with more culturally sensitive accounts (see Meagher 2012). A significant gap – the gender dynamics of China–Africa relations – exists in this work and this is something we explicitly address in this book.
We will be visiting these and other studies throughout the book but some of the key themes they reveal are as follows. First, there is general approval of the Chinese presence in Africa by Africans. Ngome's (2009) attitude survey in Cameroon suggests that although 70 per cent of respondents were concerned about the growing number of Chinese, 81 per cent welcomed Chinese products, 92 per cent felt the Chinese helped Cameroon's economy in some way, and 79 per cent recommended that relations between China and Cameroon continue, with some modifications. Sautman and Yan's (2009) survey across nine African countries focused on university students and faculty instead of a broad demographic cross-section of Africans. In general, respondents were positive about the role that Chinese small businesses played, they felt that the Chinese model of development was a good one, and were impressed by the work ethic of Chinese migrants. With regard to Zambia, Sautman and Yan contend that patterns of attitudes are similar across Africa.
Our own survey concurs with these findings with 42 per cent of Ghanaians and 54 per cent of Nigerians surveyed feeling that the Chinese had positive effects on them and their families, and 55 per cent in both countries felt their standard of living had increased as a result of the Chinese. Of those who had some contact with Chinese people, 55 per cent of Ghanaian respondents and 75 per cent of Nigerian respondents said they liked, admired or respected them. And thinking about the future, 43 per cent of Ghanaian and 56 per cent of Nigerian respondents felt China would be good for their respective countries. Asked why, the top answers for Ghana were 33 per cent more jobs, 23 per cent new skills, and 20 per cent new technology. Comparable responses for Nigeria were 36 per cent new technology and 28 per cent more jobs. Set against this for the 25 per cent of Ghanaians and 11 per cent of Nigerians surveyed who thought China would be bad for them in the future, the reasons were around 35 per cent taking resources, 25 per cent flooding markets, and 16 per cent taking jobs.
However, our survey findings, which we introduce throughout the book as appropriate, qualify this acceptance in various ways. For example, where concerns were raised about such things as taxation or job creation, it was generally noted that these were as much matters for the host African states to sort out, as they were something unique to the way Chinese migrants acted. Second, having said this, there has been a politicization of the presence of Chinese migrants by some African political actors in tandem with the over-reporting of such incidents in the western press. We noted the case of Zambia where the international press has picked up on strained industrial relations. Sautman and Yan (2009) argue that where strongly negative sentiments emerge, influential political leaders quite often stoke these tensions, something we discuss in Chapter 5. Civil society actors have engaged with the Chinese presence, often in relation to business competition, wages and industrial relations. In some cases we have seen positive outcomes of such campaigning, as in the case of Ghana's TUC getting recognition for the union at Sinohydro's Bui Dam site, but in other cases the weakness of the trade unions and the determination of certain political elites has meant that the Chinese are relatively favoured in negotiations (Lee 2009).
In terms of social and spatial relations, a third finding from the existing literature is that Chinese migrants often, for various reasons, stay relatively isolated from the African societies where they reside. The nature of this relative isolation depends on the type of firm and the nature of its business. In the case of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), we see Chinese technicians and labourers living in compounds adjacent to the construction site; and some other larger firms provide purpose-built accommodation for their staff. We also see China Towns in larger African cities, which are mainly dedicated retail spaces, sometimes with living accommodation above the shop premises. Playing into some of this social segregation is a sense of 'threat' from Africans. Chinese respondents in various studies, including our own, reported incidents of crime against them, which they used to explain their selfimposed distance from the locals. Playing into this there is for many a profound sense of cultural difference on both sides of the 'China' and 'Africa' divide, with language often acting as a barrier to further mutual understanding. That said, and this is the fourth issue, the idea of 'enclaved' Chinese communities is partial and we see significant mixing across the cultures in particular contexts. In the case of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) the Chinese owners and managers are forced to engage directly with Africans as employees, customers or partners. And it is in these relationships that we often see agency on the part of Africans in leveraging benefits from the Chinese presence. Fifth, and finally, existing studies show that divisions exist within 'the Chinese' migrant communities on issues such as length of time away from China, source region, gender and social class. Such findings caution us against those readings of Chinese business organization that reduce them to some essential feature of Chinese culture.
These existing studies have proven invaluable in beginning to go beyond the polarized debates that we noted at the start of this chapter. Using these studies as a starting point, here we set out three broad agendas that we pick up in this book. Many of the arguments 'for' or 'against' China's role in Africa tend to be based on essentialist and ideologically driven assumptions about 'China' and 'Africa' as well as particular ways of reading the political economy of development. The first main theme we explore in this book is the tension between structure and culture. Much of the critique in the Zambia example, which is emblematic of the wider China-in-Africa discourse, is based on something unique about 'Chinese culture' and the idea that 'they' do things in a particularly exploitative way. By failing to compare Chinese firms with other international firms, or Zambian ones for that matter, the analysis obscures the structural way in which the Zambian economy and Zambian workers are exploited by foreign capital. An ambition of this book is to move beyond culturalist explanations and reinsert a critical political economy of capitalist accumulation into the analysis (see Ayers 2012), which is attentive to class exploitation and the intersection of class with other axes of social difference rather than focus on cultural difference per se.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Chinese Migrants and Africa's Development by Giles Mohan, Ben Lampert, May Tan-Mullins, Daphne Chang. Copyright © 2014 Giles Mohan, Ben Lampert, May Tan-Mullins and Daphne Chang. Excerpted by permission of Zed Books Ltd.
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Table of Contents
1. The Chinese in Africa: migration and development beyond the west2. China's opening up: internationalization, liberalization and emigration
3. Africa as opportunity: Chinese interests, motives and aspirations
4. Chinese socio-economic life in Africa: networks and realities
5. Constructing the other: narratives of tension and conflict in Sino-African encounters
6. Building bridges: towards conviviality, cooperation and mutual benefit in Sino-African encounters
7. Conclusion: everyday Sino-African encounters and the potential for African development