Introduction
Over the last 40 years, Chinaâs position within the global migration order has been undergoing a remarkable shift. From being a nation most notable for its numbers of emigrants, China has increasingly become a destination for immigrants of all nationalities: from Africa to Asia, America to Europe and Australasia, people of all backgrounds are arriving to live and work in a country which, for many years, was largely closed to the outside world. China is, it would seem, finally becoming a reciprocal member of the globalised world economy, with all its inherent mobilities and fluidities (Fielding 2016).
What attracts migrants to China, and how are they received once they arrive? How are Chinese authorities and Chinese residents responding to the ever-increasing numbers of âforeignersâ in their midst? The authors in this volume turn to answer these questions in depth. Focussing on such diverse migrant communities as African traders in Guangzhou, Japanese call centre workers in Dalian, migrant restaurateurs in Shanghai, marriage migrants on the Vietnamese borderlands, South Korean parents in Beijing, Europeans in Xiamen, and Western professionals in Hong Kong, as well as the booming expansion of British and North American English language teachers across the nation, the accounts offered here reveal in intimate detail the motivations, experiences, and aspirations of a diverse sample of foreign migrants in China. Strikingly, what the stories also expose are the contradictions which appear integral to each migrantâs experiences of China; many of whom are, on the one hand, enthusiastically welcomed, while, on the other hand, received with some wariness and suspicion and resisted through a sea of complex bureaucratic and legislative processes.
The chapters in this collection reflect this contradiction of experience. The contributions range across a broad range of contemporary international migrants to China; for many years restricted to foreign students, colonialist expatriates, returned overseas Chinese and ethnic Chinese refugees (Pieke 2012). Chinaâs ânew waveâ of migrants are quite different in category, many responding to the new career opportunities offered by the rapidly expanding economy, labour market skills shortages, and demographic shifts (Evandrou et al. 2014; Fielding 2016). Companies from Japan and South Korea (see Kawashima and Ma, this volume) as well as Singapore, together with corporations from the United States and Europe, formed the first ripples of the wave, often concentrated in the Pearl River Delta region (Fielding 2016). This started a process whereby Chinaâs largest cities began to feature semi-permanent foreign populations, which expanded to include young professionals both male and female, traders and entrepreneurs, artists, performers, students as well as, in Fieldingâs (2016) view, âadventurers and charlatansâ (p. 144). Chinaâs more recent economic prowess, not least in the context of the economic instability which is fracturing Western economies, has expanded multiple opportunities to make a living. Notable amongst these are European culinary entrepreneurs in Shanghai, entrepreneurs and business people in Xiamen and West African traders in Guangzhou (see Haugen, Farrer, and Lehmann, this volume). All the while, as Barabantseva exposes in her chapter, long-standing cross-border relationships based on ethnic ties and the âhiddenâ migration which results through marriage and family formation continue and, as Leonard outlines, the steady numbers of young people arriving from English-speaking nations are increasing, largely to teach English to the Chinese at all educational levels, from kindergarten to postgraduate studies.
The volume offers a revealing insight into this ânew waveâ of diverse migrant communities in China. While it demonstrates real disparities in the ways in which different migrants are received and treated, it also reveals similarities in the rhetoric of experiences, meanings, and responses. Together, the chapters as a whole illustrate that, as yet, China is still undecided about the influx of foreigners in its midst: are they to be celebrated, encouraged to stay, and integrated as citizens? Or are they to be suspected and feared, as different in manners, morals, and political allegiances, and, as such, better kept segregated and temporary? This uncertainty about the statusâboth legally and in terms of cultural acceptanceâof foreigners in China is a shared experience for todayâs non-Chinese people and communities living and working in China.
Discussions about whether and which migrants should be encouraged or feared resonate with media, policy, and academic debates around the world. Indeed, the creation of migration policies which seek to attract âthe best and brightestâ and dissuade those considered threatening to the local job market, national security, and moral national character are also the topic of much debate in Britain, Australia, Europe and the United States . China, as it emerges as a more open and integrated part of the global economy and its associated migration flows, is likewise considering such issues. With China playing an increasingly important role in shaping current economic and geopolitical global shifts, it is apt that the way the country shapes its approach to migration is considered worthy of serious academic attention. The studies presented in this volume provide examples of current ethnographic research into these new migratory experiences within this context. While questions about the role of migration within nation-building are not necessarily unique to China, what is unique is the specific cultural and historical context of Chinaâs âopening upâ and the newness of these questions within its contemporary social, political, and cultural landscape.
International Immigration to China
Treat insiders and outsiders differently, be strict internally, relaxed to the outside world.1
For reasons derived from historical experience and political ideology, international migrants or, as they are predominately termed within Chinese policy and discourse , âforeignersâ have long occupied a sensitive and somewhat ambivalent position in China (Brady 2003). While outwardly valuing the building of connections and strong relationships with external nations, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP ) has consistently maintained a strategy to control foreign presence and activities within China. From its establishment in 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong was particularly conscious of what he described as Chinaâs âsemi-feudal, semi-colonialâ status and, as a result, established a policy by which foreign relationships were to be highly regulated. In the ensuing revolutionary years and until the late 1970s, China remained largely closed to foreign visits, business, and residence, apart from a few âfriendsâ with political sympathies. However, following Mao Zedongâs death in 1976, this changed. From the late 1970s onwards, China commenced the process of âopening upâ to the outside world.
It was the desire for economic reform which instigated this dramatic change in policy and approach (Pieke 2012). Aiming to establish a prominent position within the global economy, China needed to benefit from foreign technology and investment to modernise and become competitive. Gradually, contacts with foreigners were generated, foreign investment and business presence welcomed, and tourism developed across China, albeit with some caution: ââcrossing the river by feeling the stonesâ (moxhe shitou guo he)â (Brady 2003: 187). The Special Economic Zones (SEZs) constituted in 1979, which came to include the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian that feature prominently in this book (see Kawashima, Farrer, Haugen and Lehmann, this volume), were planned as designated regions which would be particularly attractive to foreign investors, who were often treated as âhonoured guestsâ and accorded special privileges unavailable to most Chinese citizens. That much of the research presented in this volume was conducted within SEZs is important to note, as it raises the notion that immigration to China is still today geographically uneven and is largely spatially governed by central planning and administration (see Lehmann, this volume). Nevertheless, the development of SEZs in the late 1970s and 1980s across China paved the way for relatively targeted foreign investment and foreign migration into China and to date these cities remain the predominant settings for development and implementation of systems of monitoring and governance of increasing numbers of migrants.
It was in the context of this apparent âopening upâ that the events at Tiananmen Square in June 1989 heralded a backward step in Chinaâs relations with the outsid...