Illegal Chinese flock to Uganda
February 14, 2017
Authorities in Uganda have made an outcry given the number of illegal (unofficial) Chinese migrants flocking into the country in an estimation ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 and are doing petty trade.
It is only a handful number of these illegal Chinese migrants who are engaged in professional work such as; engineering, construction, teaching and well established businesses such as operating supermarkets and hotel management, the majority are in petty businesses like selling second hand clothes and other assortments.
The public outcry was made by a scholar and economic development expert, David Dollar, a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy, Global Economy and Development programme at the John L. Thornton China Centre of the Brookings Institution, US.
He said the influx of Chinese migrants into Uganda and other African countries is a result of global labour migration, adding that currently, an estimated 105 million persons are working in a country other than their country of birth.
The economic expert made this revelation while presenting governor’s public lecture (Joseph Mubiru) series in the capital Kampala saying the official figures of Chinese workers in Africa ending 2015 was 263,696.
The lecture series was under the theme: How can Uganda benefit from China’s economic rise?
“Official figure on Chinese workers in Uganda (end-2015) was 4,473. Unofficial estimates of total Chinese migration to Uganda: 10,000 – 50,000. Estimates of total migration to Africa reach as high as 1 million,” he said.
