Les Chinois au Royaume-Uni, ou l'illusion de l'immigration choisie

In: Critique internationale: revue comparative de sciences sociales, Heft 4, S. 97-117

Abstract

Ethnographic research conducted in both China & the United Kingdom shows that the public policy of the British state in the area of immigration is not a rigid constraint externally imposed on migrants. On the contrary, it is incorporated by the latter into their strategies, which leads them to migratory, employment & survival practices that produce the social phenomena (false asylum claims, illegal work, etc.) against which the aforementioned public policy claims to act. Far from reflecting the individual qualities possessed by a given candidate for migration, moreover, screening criteria (legal residence, educational background & so on) are merely administrative statuses supplied to clients by professionals in China & the United Kingdom in exchange for hard cash. Official rhetoric concerning "selective" migration only results in limiting the number of entrants, with no effect on their "quality." Finally, it turns out that Chinese immigration to the United Kingdom tends to leave the ethnic sector & enter a "neo-proletarian" sector that plays a transitional role on the road to integration into the mainstream labor market, although conditions are sometimes more difficult for employees there. Adapted from the source document.