Guangzhou’s African Migrants: Implications for China’s Social Stability and China-Africa Relations

Until recently migration was treated like a footnote in the Africa-China discourse. Previously researchers and the media had focused attention on the “cost-benefit analysis” of China‘ s economic penetration of the continent. However, since 2008 when over a hundred African migrants blocked a major street in Guangzhou protesting the death of a Nigerian in an immigration raid, researchers and the media have been falling over themselves to unpack the phenomenon of migrant exchange in the relationship. There are now about one million Chinese migrants in Africa as against about two hundred and fifty thousand African migrants in China. Migration is a two-edged sword. On the credit side, migration can be a bridge between peoples as well as a major contributor to economic development. On the debit side, it can be a source of dispute between peoples and a threat to the hosts’ social stability. This paper discusses the implications of Guangzhou’s African migrants for China’s social stability and China’s relationship with Africa