Even amongst first generation migrants, caution should be exercised against painting immigrants with a broad brush. Similar to Jackson (1969) and Heer (1985) who highlighted the spectrum of migration, Hedetoft (2004) reinforced the distinctions between migrants, travellers and cosmopolitans. Cosmopolitans and travellers are considered movers and they are different from migrants. Migrants, Hedetoft (2004) highlighted, resettled at their destinations, often abandoning their previous homes, networks and possessions. Movers, a distinct group as compared to the migrants, on the other hand, often add on homes, networks and possessions and this is a lifestyle in its own right. This process is infinite and is constantly occurring. I disagree with this dichotomy. Although this can be considered the case for movers, migrants though settling in their host countries, may not necessarily abandon
40 all their prior tangible and intangible assets. This is especially so with the advancements in telecommunications and IT. The main distinction is whether the individual “chooses” to permanently settle at a place or not. This brings us to yet another debate on the definition of permanence and choice. It is assumed that Hedetoft refers to voluntary movement in this case and that choice is made at the point of resettlement. Therefore, a migrant in this thesis is as defined if he / she chooses to resettle in a particular country, regardless of whether future uprooting and resettlement occurs.
In talking about the Chinese migrants, it is often assumed that ‘Chinese’ is a homogenous ethnic group. However, the differentiations within the community are varied. If one starts from the premise of essentialism in which discourses group human populations into ‘races’ on the basis of biological signifiers (Rattansi, 1992), one would run into difficulties with regard to the myriad differentiations within the racial / ethnic group. The danger of generalisation aside, there is also a lacuna with regard to certain sub-groups within the community. For example, there are very few studies of Chinese people in lower-skill jobs in the UK. The exceptions are Pieke’s (2002), whose work focuses on Fujianese immigration from China, Pai’s (2008) covert ethnographic research in illuminating the plight of these labourers, and Wu, Sheehan and Guo’s (2010) work on the employment of Chinese workers. Furthermore, while most countries can furnish statistics on irregular border crossings, asylum applications and refugee status, there is little detailed information on trafficking and smuggling. In the US, Chin (1999) has done some empirical work on the issue and in Europe, apart from survey-based studies conducted in Hungary, Poland and Ukraine that also covered the Chinese community, no in-depth study of Chinese immigrants has been performed for any Western European country (Salt, 2000). With regard to studying a relatively under-researched
41 area, starting from a premise of as few preconceived notions as possible is preferred. This is the stance undertaken in this research.
2.4.1 Differentiations Based on Place of Origin
One differentiation within the ethnic group is based on Chinese people’s place of origin. China has a diverse Chinese populace originating from various provinces and speaking starkly disparate Chinese dialects (Yu, 2000). To name just a few, some of these dialects are Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hainanese, Hakka, Fujianese, Shanghainese. Secondly, there is the differentiation of Chinese people by nationality, as there is a significant proportion of Chinese people overseas who are born and bred in parts of the world other than in China (Li, 1998). Countries, especially in South-East Asia, are made up of mostly migrant communities. For example, Singapore is a migrant nation. The majority of first generation Chinese migrants in Singapore, are from China. Today, Singapore is a country with a population of which a majority (74.1%) are ethnic Chinese (Singapore Department of Statistics, 2010).
Finally, there are ‘half-Chinese’ people who are of mixed racial parentages. Over the years with immigrants sinking their roots in host societies coupled with a gradual integration of other ethnic groups into mainstream society, inter-racial marriages have become more common. The argument of ‘race’ as an artificial social construct aside, if we talk of Chinese migrants as a unitary community, we are essentialising. It imputes “a fundamental, basic, absolutely necessary constitutive quality to a person, social category, ethnic group, religious community, or nation. It is to imply an internal sameness and external difference or otherness” (Werbner, 1997:228). Furthermore, it ignores the analyses in relation to gender, generational and class differences.
42 2.4.2 Differentiations Based on Socio-Economic Profiles
Not only has the number of origin countries from which Chinese migrants to other nations expanded, the profile of contemporary Chinese migrants is also changing. Baker (1994) remarked that the nature of Chinese migration in the 1990s was different, compared to that of earlier periods’. For example, of some 60,000 Hong Kongers who emigrated in 1991, 21,000 were individuals in ‘professional, technical, administrative and managerial occupations’. They make up part of the ‘new overseas Chinese’ (Skeldon, 1994). With regard to British- born Chinese people, in more recent years, they may have climbed to the top of the educational ladder and are earning more than any other group in the UK (Barry, 1997; Chan, 1998). This is an achievement compared to the Chinese children in the 1970s who were severely alienated from British school environment which educationalists termed the ‘failure’ of Chinese schooling in Britain (Garvey and Jackson, 1975).
More recently, a development worthy of note is the increasing inflows of Chinese students to the UK, especially with the economic rise of the PRC. In 2008, students from China and Hong Kong accounted respectively for, the highest and third highest percentage of accepted international applicants into the UK [Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), 2010]. The University of Liverpool’s opening of a new University in China is the first such innovation in the UK (University of Liverpool Press Release, 2005). Launched in September 2006 with 1,500 undergraduates presently in XJTLU in Suzhou, the student numbers are expected to rise to 10,000 over the next five to eight years (University of Liverpool Annual Report, 2008). In academic year 2009-2010, the first wave of XJTLU’s students came into Liverpool to complete the latter part of their studies and graduate with a full University of
43 Liverpool degree (University of Liverpool, 2009). The profile of Chinese people in Liverpool has indeed changed tremendously over the years. Previously, there were only sailors. Now, the community is very diverse with professionals and students as well. Especially for looking at the change of Liverpool’s Chinatown over time (from the perspectives of first generation Chinese migrants), it would be interesting to look at students who were once not a significant category of immigrants within the first generation Chinese migrants. The rise in importance of education in recent years will thus drive a new dimension of migration and frame transnational household strategies (Waters, 2005). As mentioned earlier, in an era during which we are witnessing advancements in IT and telecommunications, the transnational dimension with regard to migrants’ coping strategies in host countries is thus an aspect that cannot be ignored.
2.4.3 Differentiations Based on Legal Status
In addition to not generalising about the Chinese community, the definition of a ‘migrant’ itself throws up much for discussion. As at 2012, any person who has resided continuously for five years in the UK can apply for permanent residency in the country. Although this may provide a neat definition of who is a ‘migrant’ and who is a permanent resident, one would encounter other difficulties of individuals possessing dual identities, for example, the categorisation of first, second and subsequent generations of Chinese migrants. There are also ambiguities with regard to legal status. We might neglect groups such as undocumented workers, refugees, asylum seekers, over-stayers (formerly on student visas or working visas) and students working full-time. Furthermore, there is the factor of fluidity with which migrants may change their legal status.
44 Although migration has existed for a long time, migration is not a process that is unregulated. Britain’s immigration policies are increasingly restrictive (Commission for Racial Equality, 1985; Layton-Henry, 1990; Anthias, 1992). Immigration to Britain was not subject to control until some Commonwealth citizens had to apply for employment vouchers under the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act. Further constraints on immigration took place with the passage of the 1968 Commonwealth Immigrants Act requiring all Commonwealth citizens to pass through immigration controls. The 1971 Immigration Act tightened immigration controls and ended the distinction between Commonwealth citizens and aliens; as well as the 1981 Nationality Act which limited the definition of a British citizen. More recently on 29 February 2008, a new immigration system was launched and that was intended to ensure that only those (“third country nationals”) with the right skills or the right contributions can come to the UK to work or study (UK Border Agency, 2008). The Points Based System is intended to control migration more effectively, tackle abuse and identify the most talented workers.
“As receiving countries implement restrictive policies to counter rising tides of immigrants, they simply create a lucrative niche into which enterprising agents, contractors and other middlemen move to create migrant-supporting institutions, providing migrants with yet another infrastructure capable of supporting and sustaining international movement” (Chin, 1999:xii).
A case in point by Laczko and Thompson (2000) is in their observations of Fujian province in China where smugglers and corrupt officials use community networks established abroad to facilitate their human smuggling activities. Recent studies on the Chinese community have tended to focus on a gradual and widespread problematisation of Chinese migration based on ‘key events’. In the US, there was the ‘Golden Venture’ sinking in 1993 (Chin, 1999); followed by the moral panic in Canada in 1999 when large numbers of Chinese stowaways
45 were detected (Mountz, 2004). In the UK, tragedies of the human smuggling trade such as the twenty-three deaths at Morecambe Bay in 2004 and the fifty-eight deaths in a lorry at Dover in 2000, as well as police raids in Chinese restaurants suspected of harbouring undocumented workers (BBC, 2008a) allude to the presence, if not upward momentum, of irregular Chinese migration. The mainstay of these migrations, and most migrations to date, is socio-economic opportunities (Shang, 1984).
There is also a thin line demarcating smuggling and trafficking: “[t]hey blur the boundaries between forced and voluntary movements and between legality and illegality” (Salt, 2000:35). According to the Europol Convention of 1995, “illegal migrant smuggling” comprises “activities intended deliberately to facilitate, for financial gain, the entry into, residence or employment of an alien in the territory of the State, contrary to the rules and conditions applicable in such a State”, whereas trafficking relates to the “subjection of a person to the real and illegal sway of other persons by using violence or menace, by abuse of authority or by deception, particularly in order to engage in the exploitation of prostitution of that person, forms of exploitation, of sexual violence in relation to minors or trafficking in children given up by their parents”. However, propounding the notion of undocumented workers as ‘victims’ will severely limit our understanding of the agency of actors and the dynamics involved in migration decisions and experiences. Although someone may not be fully aware of what they are committing to when going through the process of becoming undocumented workers, they may have deliberately made the choice at the outset prior to embarkation on the journey.
Since the mid-1980s, Chinese migration into Europe has been greatly facilitated by professional human smugglers (Pieke, 2002), leading to anecdotal evidence suggesting that
46 Chinese refugees and asylum seekers comprise the main workforce for the Chinese catering industry. Similar to Ardill’s (1988) observation that most unauthorised employment takes place in labour intensive sectors such as hotel and catering, garment and cleaning industries, Pai (2008) reported that the number of workers from Fujian province in China had been increasing since 1990s to ameliorate labour shortage in the Chinese catering as well as construction industries. In London’s Chinatown, Fujianese make up 70-80% of the catering workforce. The recent influx of Fujianese, noted by Pieke (2002), provided a source of unskilled and cheap labour in Britain’s Chinese catering industry that is dominated by Hong Kong, Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese and is stereotyped as being exploitative.