The role of non-governmental organizations and informal associations in service delivery for African migrants and their families in China

Abstract

As part of the initiative to establish greater bilateral ties with Africa, the Chinese government has made significant efforts to build greater economic, social, and political links with several African states in the past few decades. To facilitate this process, emigration policies were eased to allow for greater mobility of people to migrate and travel between the two areas. As a result, the volume of trade, investment, and interactions between China and Africa has increased exponentially in recent years. Given the growing connectedness between China and various African states, new patterns of international migration are emerging, as evidenced by the growing presence of Chinese migrants in several African states, and African traders and African migrant workers in several Chinese cities, most visibly in Guangzhou in South China. The emergence of transnational families and mixed-raced marriages (and cohabitation) in China is also increasingly prominent. While existing literature examines China-Africa social relations, a large majority of studies are rooted in anthropological and sociological approaches, failing to pay attention to how, in the absence of state provision or state support, local non-governmental organizations(NGOs) and informal African associations are taking on roles as key service providers for these African traders and their families, many of whom have poor access to public resources such as health care and education. This study examines how local NGOs and informal community associations in China identify the growing needs of these migrants, and subsequently design and implement appropriate social welfare and informal support services. This paper adopts a qualitative approach, relying heavily on in-depth interviews with key stakeholders including representatives of informal community associations, nongovernmental organizations, public officials and local scholars. The interviews were supplemented by field observation conducted in several districts of Guangzhou, characterized as migrant enclaves. Preliminary findings suggest that many within the African communities in China, including mixed-raced families, are relatively isolated from mainstream society, and face barriers accessing welfare resources such as housing. In the absence of any state welfare provision, nongovernmental organizations have begun to provide a variety of welfare-related services to facilitate better integration of African migrants and families into Guangzhou. However, this study also found that in recent years the local government is increasingly tightening the monitoring and regulation over the activities of African migrants, especially in districts where there is a highly visible concentration. Mechanisms such as restricting Visa entries and regular spot-checks have caused disruptions in the daily lives of these African migrants and their families, and regular registration of residence of ‘foreigners’ is resulting in the dispersal of migrants across the city from the traditional enclave areas. NGOs continue to provide social welfare and support services for these individuals in face of this geographic dispersal, tightening local government regulations, and demonstrate evidence of adapting their strategies in response to various identified welfare needs. This paper concludes by discussing the complex interactions and dynamics amongst African migrants, non-governmental organizations and the Chinese state, and draws out implications for other third sector practitioners in the context of international migration.