Chinese workers in Africa: ruffling theories of transnational labor mobility

A crucial aspect of the Chinese presence in Africa is the employment of transnational Chinese workers in the growing number of Chinese public and private enterprises. This paper stems from dissatisfaction with the rift between studies of Chinese workers in Africa, studies of Chinese state-sponsored globalization, and recent conceptualizations of transnational labor mobility. This rift has prevented the foregrounding of the simultaneous and co-produced movement of capital, firms, machinery and workers from China to Africa within Chinese government’s globalization strategies. I address this gap by bringing different literatures and approaches into dialogue. I engage in theoretical debates. I ruffle prevailing conceptualizations of transnational labor mobility in relation to capital mobility and methodological approaches that focus solely on receiving states. My central argument is that the mobility of workers from China to Africa should be discussed as a new mobility pattern. Keywords: Chinese workers in Africa; labor mobility; Africa; global China