Chinese Immigrants Generate Wealth and are Seldom Victims

The findings of the study of the Fuzhou Diaspora in Europe are to be presented at a major London conference, People Without Frontiers today (Friday 25 October), together with other studies of global communities and migration.

The research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, found that the main reason that the Chinese came to Europe was to make money for their families by working hard. They should be regarded as immigrants who generate their own employment and, ultimately, wealth in both their new host country and their area of origin, the report says.

"This is the first crucial step toward the realisation that Chinese migration need not be the unmanageable domestic and diplomatic hot potato that it is often thought to be," says project leader, Dr Frank Pieke at the Institute of Chinese Studies. "Most Fujianese migrants remain very much in control of their own destiny, an issue often obscured by the publicity on trafficking, kidnapping and debt bondage. Serious law-enforcement issues undeniably exist but they are by no means the defining feature of the Fujianese presence in Europe."

The aim of the project was to examine the new wave of Chinese international migration with particular focus on migration from Fujian, where the role of `snakeheads` or human smugglers has attracted widespread comment. Chinese emigration has grown spectacularly since 1978; in Fujian, migration is a status symbol and part of a strategy for family advancement. The export of labour is also regarded as a top economic priority by local authorities.

The research found that although emigration was widely commercialised and handled by `brokers`, it was not necessarily criminalised. "Chinese migrants usually perceive the asylum system in Europe as a peculiar sort of immigration arrangement, rather than a humanitarian instrument and therefore do not see making up stories of persecution as something illegal, much less as part of an underworld conspiracy," the report says.

The study used an ethnographic approach consisting of interviews and surveys in Chinese communities in Britain, the Netherlands and seven other European countries as well as in sending communities in China. The aim was to examine the cross-border relationships between Chinese communities in Europe as well as the process of migration itself. One finding is that migrant Chinese who often travel legally, remain highly mobile once they arrive in Europe, changing countries when the conditions are right.

"Our research offers a better view of the differences and similarities between the many Chinese migration flows, which will help unpack and demystify the seemingly threatening fact of Chinese mass migration," says Frank Pieke.

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

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Chinese Immigrants Generate Wealth and are Seldom Victims

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