“Emergence of an African Community in China: Reasons and Contexts” in “African Community in China”
Emergence of an African Community in China: Reasons and Contexts
What set this migration in motion? How do potential African migrants make the decision to move? Why do they choose China as a host country? There are a number of factors that influence people’s decisions to migrate as well as many migration theories that try to explain and classify these factors.
Migration is generally motivated by a lack of opportunity at home; for example there may be poverty, scarcity of jobs, economic collapse, war and conflict, religious or political persecution, or natural disasters; but migration is also prompted by a surplus of benefits abroad, for example higher living standards, better job opportunities and wages, social security, and stable economic and political environments.18 Other factors such as individual and family characteristics, risk-coping strategies, and labor and capital market imperfections in the destination and home countries, as well as the presence of settled migrants in the host society, can also influence the decision to migrate (Stark, 2003).
The first wave of migrants, composed of students and entrepreneurs, put in motion and sustained the mechanism of “chain migration” defined by MacDonald and MacDonald (1964) as “that movement in which prospective migrants learn of opportunities, are provided with transportation, and have initial accommodation and employment arranged by means of primary social relationships with previous migrants (MacDonald and MacDonald, 1964, 82–97).” In other words, African migrants from the first wave, who settled in Hong Kong and then in Guangzhou, have provided their relatives, friends, and associates not only with general information about China and its economic opportunities, but also with important specific details about jobs and business and study prospects. At times, the original settlers have played a prominent role in financing later migrants’ moves to China or in finding housing or jobs for their kin and friends, thus establishing networks of information, assistance and obligation (Bertoncello and Bredeloup, 2007, 99).
This expanding network increases the likelihood of migration because the social capital provided by ties of kinship, friendship, and ethnicity connects migrants in China with potential migrants in African countries. These ties reduce the costs and risks of migration. The first Africans in China, who went to explore then-unknown regions and markets, had no personal network to rely upon; hence for them migration meant relatively high financial costs and risks. But for subsequent migrants the cost has generally been lower; they can count on social ties for guidance and information.19
Positive feedback about the host country shared by migrants with their families and acquaintances back home has repeatedly been identified as playing a role in subsequent migrations (Massey and Taylor, 2004, 394; Simon, 2008, 255; Guilmoto and Sandrone, 2003, 142; Pina-Guerassimoff, 2004, 170–189). By sending money and positive information back home, African migrants are directly and indirectly encouraging other family or community members to migrate. However, the potential migrants often filter out negative information, focusing instead on the success stories of community members or acquaintances.
Although this information is quite often incomplete, it can still have a strong influence on the decision-making process in the pre-migration phase.20 As one of the interviewed African migrants explained, he chose to come to China because there were already a lot of his fellow countrymen there and because he heard that they were “doing well”:
I came here because there are so many Nigerians here doing business—good business. There are so many of them who married Chinese women and they are set up with them, perfect idyll, wife and kids. They are doing well and they love this place. I wanted to be like them. So, Guangzhou kind of allows foreigners to settle down and do their business, because it’s only here that you can see foreigners transact their business without being disturbed by anybody. There are so many things that make it possible for the business transactions to be good. We have so many ‘brothers’ and agencies that settle in Guangzhou that makes it easier whatever you want to do. You can get whatever you want right now.21
Although a considerable number of migrants travel individually and do not rely on social networks or transnational communities, African migration to China seems to be a collective decision-making process involving families and local communities. In many cases family and community members encourage migration by helping to collect money for the first step of the migration process, providing a network of social and business connections in the host country, or transmitting useful information about new migration routes and opportunities.22
Recent research carried out on migrants of different ethnic and social origins considers migration one of the survival strategies that households or even whole communities use in an era of transnational economies and globalized society (Stark, 1991, 406; Barham and Boucher, 1998, 307–331; Taylor and Rozelle, 2003). Households use migration to protect their incomes from too-severe fluctuation and to protect themselves from various forms of market failure. In the event that economic or social problems in the home country reduce household income, remittances from family members abroad, who are less affected by these problems, will help the household survive. Thus, migration can operate as a sort of risk management strategy; it can be a way to ease a household or community’s financial challenges in the absence of insurance and credit markets or provide stability during the fluctuations of markets and financial institutions (Konseiga, 2005; Herman, 2006).
For instance, one of the respondents from Nigeria told us he had not made the decision to migrate to China on his own; rather his uncle and other family members discussed the situation and advised him to migrate. As the youngest brother in a family of five male and two female children, he was not the only person to move abroad. One of his brothers had gone to the U.S. and one of his sisters had gone to the U.K. His other siblings stayed at home to help his father manage the family business and estate. His uncle, who was importing textiles from Indonesia, made a stop in Hong Kong on one of his trips to Kuala-Lumpur. Like many other transnational African traders, he realized that prices for products on the Chinese market were lower than those of the exact same products on the Indonesian market, so he decided to extend his business network to Guangzhou.
His uncle’s stories about dealings with Chinese factories and about the thrilling new economic opportunities in Guangzhou were vivid and often discussed by the respondent’s family members; this is how the idea to send someone to China had developed. After some debate, the respondent was designated as the best candidate for migration as he was least implicated in the family business.
This migrant story is a classic example of a family survival strategy. The family has sent three of its children (i.e. labor assets) to geographically and economically distinct regions in order to secure the family’s well-being and a stable position within the local community.
Once in China, the respondent joined his uncle’s import-export business. His role there was to control the purchase of goods, their transportation to the port, and further shipment to Africa:
Most Africans started to come to China around 2000 because of the lower price, that’s all. When you work with Chinese people, you can work with them but there is no… ‘confidence’… mutual trust. That’s why my father and my uncle wanted me to be there. Cause they can work with transactions and banks and stuff like that. But when the Chinese are downloading their goods, they can put some fake goods there. Like a TV where there is nothing inside. We lost around $9 thousand because of these fake goods, they load the container, and the container came to Africa.23
Circulating between Guangzhou, Yiwu and Shanghai, this gentleman took care of all the necessary administrative procedures, negotiating reasonable prices with suppliers or directly with Chinese factories, and assuring that all the transactions were going smoothly. Though he did not speak Chinese very well, he sometimes acted as an intermediary between Africans who had just come to China and local Chinese producers. He helped them establish useful contacts, select goods, and ship the purchased goods back to Africa. In return, he received some monetary compensation, made new connections, and found potential clients for his warehousing and container-loading services.
In general, when asked about the reasons they decided to come to China, African migrants give a wide range of answers, most of them practical. They explain that their decision was shaped by China’s rise as a global economic and political power and its growing presence in Africa. As one of the respondents, a twenty-eight year old woman from Zimbabwe stated:
The reason I came to China was because China is the next upcoming emerging market and definitely is the place to be. Booming Chinese economy and ever closer ties with Africa create opportunities as tempting as any in the West.24
The respondent had come to China several years before, after graduating from an American university. In China she first studied at Beijing University and then found a well-paid job at one of the Chinese international TV channels. For her, China represented an opportunity to make an interesting career, to live a dynamic professional life, and to achieve her ambitions. Zimbabwe seemed to her much less attractive, considering her skills and diploma. Another respondent who came to China from Congo to study business and who stayed after graduation working as a DJ in Beijing and Shanghai night clubs describes the same feeling:
I felt the energy, the opportunity, and I felt the magnitude, how big stuff is here and how big stuff will be in the future. So I decided, okay, I think that’s the place I should stay…. I was feeling like, wow, I am in the right place in the right time.25
Those who came as traders, with both short- and long-term residence in China, also mention the booming Chinese economy and the many business opportunities in Southern China. The fast development of trading infrastructure and the logistics industry, as well as a number of relatively unoccupied niches in the market, are the major encouraging factors in this migration movement to the PRC, but they are not the only ones. The situation in the migrants’ home countries plays a role, as does the global economic and political conjuncture. A combination of events in Africa—the worsening of economic conditions and the socio-political unrest that has engulfed many African societies—as well as the progressive tightening of immigration policies in Europe, are also among the reasons increasing numbers of Africans choose new migration destinations and explore new migration routes (Nwajiuba, 2005; UNDP, 2009; Van Moppes, 2006).
18. This migration model, known as “push and pull factors,” was first proposed by Ernest Ravenstein (1834–1913), an English geographer. It was reformulated and extended by Everett Lee, who showed that factors such as distance, natural and political boundaries, and having dependents can affect migration decisions. Lee also argued that social factors such as age, gender, and social class, as well as education level, social support/safety nets, and networks determine and influence how individuals, households, and communities react to push and pull factors.
19. As a result, the network becomes an independent factor encouraging further migration (Massey et. al, 1993, 431–466).
20. The information that motivates people to migrate could be also quite subtly distributed through mass-media publications and advertisements. One of the best examples of such influence is the publicity campaign launched by Western Union, a company that is profiting from global migration flows. During one such campaign in Dakar, for example, city walls were covered with Western Union posters in which a happy elderly African woman is holding handfuls of cash. Under the image is this inscription: “Another reason to be proud of my son” (Ros et. al, 2007).
21. Interview conducted in Hong Kong, at wholesale market, 2009.
22. For example, studies conducted among African migrants in Europe coming from Senegal reveal that it is often the mother who plays a key role in the decision-making process; or the second wife in a polygamous family, having fewer privileges than the first wife, encourages one of her sons to migrate. For other ethnic groups, the uncle or oldest brother can also play a key role (Schapendonk and Van Moppes, 2007, 29).
23. Interview conducted in 2011, on the forum of African community in Shanghai, available at: http://www.afroshanghai.com/forums/.
24 Interview conducted in Beijing, 2008.
25. Interview conducted in Beijing, 2008.
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