The evolving perspectives on the Chinese labour regime in Africa

George Ofosu,David Sarpong

doi:10.1177/0143831x211029382

George Ofosu, David Sarpong

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831x211029382

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Abstract

This article explores the logics, persistence and evolution of perspectives on the Chinese labour regime in Africa. Studies find that Chinese firms’ labour practices engender abuse via casualisation of labour, low remuneration, and a general lack of adherence to occupational safety. Contrarian studies however demonstrate variations among Chinese firms’ labour practices as mediated by the labour dynamics of host countries, labour specificities and industrial capitalism dynamics. The article concludes by questioning the ‘talent gap’ dynamic in Africa in relation to Chinese firms’ managerial hiring practices and calls for an engaged scholarship on how Chinese investment in Africa’s human resource base is altering the ‘talent gap’ phenomenon.

Highlights

In recent times, an important development within the broad globalisation trend has been the active role played by Chinese firms which are looking for market opportunities around the world (Deng, 2012)
Our findings suggest that variables such as country context, sector specificities and firm attributes, and global industrial capitalism mechanisms contribute to shaping the labour practices of Chinese firms in Africa
Whereas the Chinese government usually engages with African governments for political and economically strategic reasons including natural resource security (Taylor, 2006), the private Chinese businesses, which constitute about 90% of all Chinese businesses in Africa, enter the African

Summary

Introduction

An important development within the broad globalisation trend has been the active role played by Chinese firms which are looking for market opportunities around the world (Deng, 2012) Within this context Africa, with its ever-growing consumer market and low labour costs, has caught the eye of China and has emerged as a new frontier for investment opportunities by Chinese companies. The diversity of Chinese companies is considerable, ranging from major multi-million dollar state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to small and medium size enterprises or businesses run by individual entrepreneurs (Alden and Davies, 2006; Alden et al, 2008; McNamee, 2012) Some of these Chinese investors appear to have been substantially integrated into the African business community with more embedded positions built up over the years (Alden et al, 2008; Brautigam et al, 2018; Kamoche and Siebers, 2015). Much of the journalistic reporting still focuses on talk about substandard working conditions (Mbamalu, 2018) and whether Chinese firms in Africa localise the workforce (Sautman and Yan, 2015)

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