Chinese return from Africa as migrant population peaks
From 1m in 2013, the number of Chinese in the continent is in decline, analysts say
Like dozens of others from his sleepy fishing village on China’s south-east coast, Wen Wenyuan set off a few years ago to start a new life in Africa. But this year he decided to return.
Wen is one of hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers — both private entrepreneurs and employees of state-run companies — to have returned from Africa in recent years, as lower commodity prices hit many of the continent’s economies.
Sub-Saharan Africa grew at 1.5 per cent in 2016, its slowest in two decades, while South Africa slipped into recession this year. “The economy got worse, so we came back,” says Mr Wen, 33, who ran a supermarket near Johannesburg for five years.
The volume of Chinese returnees — 150,000 are estimated to have left oil-rich Angola in the past four years alone — means that the Chinese population in Africa is now in decline from about 1m in 2013, according to analysts.
While 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.
“Continent-wide there seems to be a decrease,” says Barry Sautman, who monitors Chinese migration to the continent at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “In part because of a downturn in the commodities cycle, it became unsustainable for many Chinese to continue their businesses.”
The migrant decline mirrors a fall in trade and investment between China and Africa, which reached more than $200bn in 2015, before falling below $150bn last year. China’s direct investment in the continent is negligible compared with trade
Known for its entrepreneurial culture and history of emigration, hundreds of thousands have moved from China’s Fujian province to southern Africa since the early 2000s, and are thought to make up the majority 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, many with crosses painted above their doors, a reflection of the province’s large Christian population.
But South Africa’s growth slowed after 2007 and several returned traders blamed the falling value of the rand against China’s renminbi for biting into margins. “The exchange rate is no good,” says Zhang Xueping, 67, who returned a few years ago and was overseeing the addition of a spiral staircase to his four-storey house when the Financial Times visited.
Others cite what they say was a rise in crime aimed at Chinese immigrants. “Most have now returned from South Africa, because its chaotic there,” says 57-year-old Zhuang Maifu, who built a five-storey house with the proceeds from a clothing store he opened in South Africa in 2004. He returned to China last year.
The returnees’ complaints are discouraging younger people from venturing to the continent, says Mr Sautman. “There’s a discourse among those who come back and a lot of it is negative?.?.?.?some of it is economic and some of it is political and cultural, and that has some effect,” he says. Rising wages in China mean the incentive for low-skilled workers to migrate has also decreased.
There are exceptions to the trend. Countries in east Africa such as Ethiopia and Kenya are still seeing Chinese migrant numbers rise, according to analysts and locals. China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative includes the region, and there is a rise in manufacturing and green field investment. In 2015, Xi Jinping, China’s president, pledged $60bn for African projects over three years.
“There is a new direction. Those heading to Africa will no longer be traders and labourers, they will be in business services heading to countries that have closer industrial co-operation with China,” says Liu Haifang, an Africa relations expert at Peking University.
Villagers in coastal Fujian says there was 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 in recent years as house prices in China have increased.
South America is emerging as a popular destination. “Our relations are spread out across the world,” says villager Chen Daochun, adding that young people were increasingly seeking fortunes in Argentina and Brazil. “It costs a lot of money to find a wife.” |
