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Research professor warns C’bean to brace for increased Chinese population
By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
Evan Ellis, an international research professor, is predicting that the population of Chinese nationals in the Caribbean and Latin America will dramatically increase in the coming years.
Ellis is a senior associate (non-resident) with the Americas Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is a research professor of Latin American studies.
Last year November, Ellis published a paper titled “The Future of Latin America and the Caribbean in the Context of the Rise of China.”
The paper examines China’s “strategy” in Latin America and the Caribbean. It points out what the superpower has already achieved and what it is likely to achieve within 30 years based on its current trajectory.
While examining the implications of China’s “greatly expanded position” as banker, employer, and military and political partner in Latin America and the Caribbean, Ellis considered some of the possible dynamics by sector. He spoke extensively about the impact China will have on infrastructural development in the Caribbean.
Particularly, Ellis said that the growing number of construction projects by Chinese companies also will bring more Chinese workers to the region, not only in projects for small governments with relatively weak negotiating positions (as in the Caribbean), but also in larger countries such as Brazil, whose strong institutions and domestic competitors will become less effective in pressuring their governments to resist deals involving large numbers of Chinese workers.
Ellis said that one politically and socially important side effect of the increased presence of Chinese workers will be the growth of Chinese communities throughout the region, “as some of those workers overstay their visas or through other means remain in the countries where they were brought to work.”
International Research Professor, Evan Ellis
The research professor said that by 2050, Chinese communities most likely will have become part of the cultural landscapes of many Latin American and Caribbean cities where they now are invisible minorities.
Ellis said that the growth of these communities will affect the political and cultural dynamics of the region, fueling periodic anti-Chinese protests in some countries, with increasingly influential Chinese embassies insisting that local governments protect the interests and well-being of Chinese communities.
Further, he said that the growth of Chinese populations will also increase the activities of China-based criminal organizations in the region.
Ellis said that new organized crime challenges will foster greater cooperation between China and Latin American police forces, at times generating complaints that China national police are operating with too much autonomy within Chinese communities in the region.
“Indeed, as Chinese police become active in Latin America in fighting trans-Pacific crime, some Chinese, whose ancestors long ago left China, may feel that the police presence enables the government to monitor and intimidate ethnic Chinese beyond the PRC’s borders,” said Ellis.
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