Number of Chinese workers across Africa drops by over 60% over past decade — report

The number of Chinese workers across Africa has plummeted to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, with experts saying the continent is unlikely to see the high numbers of the past even though postponed China-run projects are now being restarted.

After decades when Africa saw an influx of Chinese workers seeking large infrastructure projects across the continent, their number has dropped to its lowest level since the record high of 263,696 workers in 2015 to about 88,371 in 2022, the most recent year on record. The China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University attributed the drop in numbers partially to the Covid-19 pandemic as Chinese workers left during that period and the country only reopened in early 2023. Among other factors cited in its report are oil prices and the downscaling of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s global Belt and Road Initiative, which have caused many Chinese workers to leave Africa in search of a better life.

According to the report released by the China Africa Research Initiative, as of 2022, Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had the most Chinese workers on the continent. The 91,000 Chinese workers in Algeria and 50,000 in Angola in 2016 have shrunk to mere 7,000 workers in each country by 2022.

But not all African countries have seen recent declines in Chinese workers, as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt and Zimbabwe have seen an uptick in numbers. “We have no data for 2023, but anecdotally we hear that more postponed projects are resuming. Yet we are unlikely to see the high numbers of the past,” said Deborah Brautigam, director at the China Africa Research Initiative.