“African Migrants and Chinese Society” in “African Community in China”
African Migrants and Chinese Society
China has long been a source of emigration to the rest of the world, but with its booming economy, the direction of human traffic has started to shift. In the past forty years, China has become a destination for thousands of immigrants. These newcomers arrive especially from neighboring countries such as Japan, South and North Korea, and Russia, but also from distant lands and regions. Upon arrival they settle in large Chinese cities, where new ethnic communities are rapidly emerging.
Unfortunately, however, China’s immigration system has not kept pace with these changes. This complaint is shared by almost all African diplomats in Beijing.39 As immigration law in China is not easily accessible to foreigners and is constantly modified without notification, the system is quite chaotic and open to abuse. Recently Beijing started drafting the first immigration law in the history of the PRC.40 Regularizing the rigid, conservative system is urgently needed as many migrants who come to China with valid documents and want to extend their stay or change their migration status often lack the means to do so.
Africans who are part of this population movement experience various problems with local police and authorities while trying to officially register their companies, rent commercial premises or residential apartments, or pass customs (Osnos, 2009). Aside from students and official representatives, most African traders enter China on three-month tourist visas, regardless of the duration of their stay. This type of visa is very difficult to renew; one has to use the services of Chinese agents and obscure middlemen who expect high commissions. According to our interviewees, a one-year visa extension will cost an African applicant between 20 and 35 thousand RMB (approximately US$3–5 thousand). As a result, many overstay the terms of their visas or simply switch passports in their home countries and return under new names. Others try to enroll in small provincial Chinese universities or find positions as English teachers in remote Chinese cities to legalize their stay. Those who have requested a residence permit—Africans who have married Chinese nationals or started local businesses with Chinese partners—have to renew their documents four times a year, facing long waits and high renewal fees (Law, 2010).
While describing their relationships with the Chinese in everyday life, many African migrants mention that they often experience prejudice; they encounter racist and xenophobic attitudes among the local Chinese. Indeed, compared to most foreigners arriving in China as investors or white-collar employees, Africans are perceived to be “different” in terms of ethnicity, nationality, language, and culture. These differences influence the way the Chinese react to the new migration phenomenon. Current Chinese perceptions of Africans settling in the PRC seem to be dominated by the images and stereotypes carried by the mass media. The dominant Chinese media often portrays Africans as starved people living in hard conditions, mainly in the desert, with HIV/IDS or as beneficiaries of aid from richer nations. The images and stories shown in the media have gradually become part of Chinese conventional wisdom or “common knowledge,” contributing to a narrow perception of Africans in China.
According to one of the African students interviewed in Beijing, the most common stereotypes of African behavior listed by the Chinese are unpleasant smell, noisiness, violence, drunkenness, crime, and sexual harassment of local women:
When I came to China I started to feel what racism is. At first I was kind of lost really. After being here for a while, I just said to myself, I shouldn’t care about it that much. Because, on one hand, you could say it is racism the way they treat you, the way they look at you, the way they talk about you. But on the other hand, you might think it is just curiosity, maybe. They don’t get to see black people that much. You can see some of them want to touch your hair, touch you, they want to feel if you’re sticky, this kind of thing.41
As this African student noted, Chinese attitudes could be the result of lack of exposure and of insufficient knowledge of African histories and civilizations. Though the China-Africa strategic partnership is highly publicized by official Chinese media, the information flow is mainly focused on China’s involvement in Africa—not the other way around. For instance, during the 2006 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, there was very little communication on African culture or history, and the welcoming concert broadcast by Chinese television was almost entirely composed of Chinese performing artists.
The negative perception and discriminatory treatment of African migrants in China recently resulted in an open protest among Africans living in Guangzhou. The protest erupted in July 2009 after one African migrant died jumping out of a building to escape police who were making surprise passport and visa checks. Approximately two hundred African migrants surrounded a local police station and stopped traffic outside, protesting against the tightening of visa controls, frequent police harassment and extortion, lack of legal protection for foreigners, and the absence of clearly defined immigration regulations. This protest attracted a lot of attention both locally and internationally; several African embassies dispatched their representatives to investigate the matter.42 Thus the African community in China suddenly became an issue that could no longer be ignored in Sino-African relations.
Many African migrants in China feel that they do not have a clearly defined place in the social hierarchy of Chinese society and, despite being more or less integrated linguistically, they cannot yet accept, approve, or endorse Chinese culture, values, and traditions. However, African migration to China is still a very recent phenomenon. Adams Bodomo’s research in Guangzhou showed that the African community there is still very much “steeped in African culture in terms of how people identify themselves, what friends they choose, what cultural activities they engage in, and what they eat (Bodomo, 2010, 704–705).” Nonetheless, the African community in China is quickly developing, and African migrants settling in China are slowly being influenced by the Chinese society in which they are embedded:
Don’t give up just because you aren’t getting what you want. First year, especially the first few months, was tough. Getting used to food and the place, you don’t know the language. [While communicating with the Chinese] I had to use a body language, gestures, make some sounds for them to understand—chicken, not beef. There is a lot of stress. You think all the time of going back home but at the end, you’ll work yourself out. In the beginning it’s hard. But then, when you know the people, they are better than you think. They are welcoming, they are willing to help. You can get used to the food and the weather. And when you’ll finally go home, you’ll miss China.43
Being a multi-ethnic country, China needs to promote a tolerant attitude vis-à-vis ethnically diverse communities to enable the development of cross-cultural interaction and communication and to prevent possible tensions and conflicts. The Chinese government should adopt clearly defined immigration laws and regulations to better manage the increasing number of immigrants and to address their need for a legitimate and secure environment, especially relating to ethnic cultures and customs, employment and education.
39. Interview conducted in Beijing, May 2011.
40. In 2005, the country launched a pilot policy similar to that of the U.S. “green card,” which would permit foreigners with substantial investments, connections, and time spent in China to apply for a long-term residence permit. However, this experiment was quickly put to an end, as the admission criteria formulated by Chinese administrations were too severe and difficult to satisfy to be an effective long-term solution (Yang, Wang, and Liu, 2009).
41. Interview conducted in African embassies in Beijing, May 2008.
42. Interview conducted in African embassies in Beijing, May 2011.
43. Interview conducted in Shanghai, 2009.
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