Afro-Chinese Labour Migration

Photo of Franklin Obeng-Odoom

Prof. Franklin Obeng-Odoom (University of Helsinki’s Development Studies and Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science) just published a new article on Afro-Chinese labour migration. His article shows that Afro-Chinese labour migration experience is far more complex than what neoclassical economics suggests. Driven, or, at least moulded, not so much by the migrant as a rational utility-maximising individual but by holistic processes of ‘circular, combined and cumulation causation’, Afro-Chinese migration, and Afro-Chinese relations, more generally, have contributed to economic growth, but at the cost of much socio-spatial displacement, and socio-ecological degradation. Added to these social costs is widespread labour exploitation. So, the insidious attempts by the state, business enterprise, corporate finance, and capital to consider migration as a ‘spatial fix’ for economic growth are questionable. Check out the full paper here!