Chinese Migrants Lose Faith in Southern Africa

choi

Tom Hancock, Chinese Migrants Lose Faith in Southern Africa; Lower commodity prices have hurt economies and foreign employees are going home. Financial Times, Aug 29, 2017, at page 4 (under the heading "Worker flows. Downturn")

Quote:

(a) "Africa grew at 1.5 per cent [American English: percent] in 2016, its slowest in two decades, while South Africa slipped into recession this year [economics in BRICKS no more, except China's].

(b) "The volume of Chinese returnees -- 150,000 are estimated to have left oil-rich Angola in the past four years alone == means that Chinese population i Africa is in decline from a peak of 1m in 2013, according to analysis.

"Most of China's migration to Africa has been by small-scale entrepreneurs, the number of contract workers serving Chinese state-owned enterprises fell 32,000 last year to 233,000, according to the state-run China International Contractors Association 中国对外承包工程商会.

(c) "The migration decline mirrors a fall in trade and investment between China and Africa, which reached more than$299bn in 2015 before falling below %150bn last year. China's direct investment in the continent is negligible compared with trade.

"Know for its entrepreneurial culture and history of migration, hundred of thousands have moved from China's Fujian province to southern Africa since the early 2000s, and are thought to make up most of South Africa's Chinese population of more than 350,000.

"As a result, visitors to remote coastal villages in Fujian can find their request for directions answered in English, tinged with a South African accent. Migration has transformed the villages, with tall houses built with remittances from overseas workers, may with crosses painted above their doors, a reflection of the province's large Chrinstian population.

(d) "Villagers in coastal Fujian say there is still a strong desire among young people to emigrate, driven by the costs of a marriage dowry that has risen to as much as Rmb1m ($150,000) in recent years as house prices in China have increases.

My comment: There is no need to read the rest.