Migration flows and the make-up of these flows of highly-skilled migrants varies greatly from region to region in China. Because of this, each of the main destinations of British and Singaporean migration will be discussed in turn. Interviews were carried out in all locations as part of the research work 1997-2001.

Obtaining accurate figures regarding the number of Britons and Singaporeans in China is very difficult for a number of reasons:

• Highly transitory populations
• Exit data from Singapore and China cannot be adequately deconstructed
• Despite requirements to register with embassies, not all immigrants to so
• Chinese data not sufficiently detailed

Because of these problems, we have relied on estimates from key individuals who have been in China for many years. These include diplomats, representatives of Chambers of Commerce, Singapore Club committee members and committee members of expatriate organisations such as Brits Abroad in Shanghai. From these individuals, we have concluded that in the five regions in which we have worked there are about 25,300-27,400 Britons and 15,000 Singaporeans (see Table 1).

While Britons and Singaporeans obviously work for a range of companies and organisations with different national bases, Table 2 provides a useful overview of the distribution of ‘British’ businesses in China by sector and location. These regional trends are picked up later.

Source: Calculated from British Business in China 2000: Directory of British Chambers of Commerce in China Hong Kong: EFP International.

As the capital, Beijing is obviously the primary location for Singapore and British government representatives. In addition, many companies have their China representative offices in Beijing, particularly those companies working in the service sector. As the service sector expands in China, changes in legislation and beginning to provide opportunities for foreign companies to set up businesses in personal financial services for example. Consultancy companies are also well represented among British businesses in China.

As well as the diplomatic employees and those working for large multi-national companies, Beijing also has a significant population of Britons who are studying Chinese or teaching English in the Chinese capital.

Shanghai has been a focus for the opening up of China to external trade, just as it was in the early 20^th Century.

These locations in the Yangtze Delta Region, are key sites of Singaporean investment in China, including the government-to-government industrial park in Suzhou and a private-sector park in Wuxi.

As part of the opening-up to foreign investment, as in Shanghai, Guangzhou has experienced a rapid growth in overseas investment, particularly within manufacturing sectors. This is linked both to investment within the city itself, but also in the neighbouring Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. The proximity of Hong Kong has also encouraged foreign investment and associated migration.

HongKong Island from Victoria Peak

Hong Kong has historically been a key trade hub for economic activities in East Asia. During the British colonial period, it became a regional centre for many transnational coporations who were looking to expand their activities in the region. This position has continued, albeit with greater competition from other locations, since 1997 when Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region within the People's Republic of China.

Within the migration flows a number of expected trends emerged in relation to gender differences, for both British and Singaporean migrants:

• Men are more likely to be posted overseas than women
• Women posted overseas are almost always single
• Accompanying spouses/partners are almost always women

These trends reflect both the jobs (sector and level) of those posted to China, and also the social expectations of migrants regarding households responsibilities. The companies involved in overseas postings are often in very male-dominated sectors (diplomatic service, finance, engineering, chemicals, ship-building) so a male-dominated skilled labour flow is not unexpected. In some cases, the identification of China as a ‘hardship posting’ and the ability of women to cope with such conditions may have influenced personnel decisions. However, there were also a number of cases of companies who preferred women employees because they are less likely to get involved in romantic liaisons with locals, and are perceived as good in marketing and customer relations work.

Women posted overseas are invariably single, whereas men’s postings are less correlated with marital status. For women, being single means a greater ability to decide on mobility, whereas once married, or in a long-term partnership, this mobility is reduced (or is perceived to be reduced) as male partners are higher earners, women have responsibility for childcare and other domestic tasks, or power relations within the household mean women have less of a say in migration decisions.

The routes into professional/managerial positions were not a simple case of being posted overseas as anticipated in the research proposal. In fact there were four main routes into employment:

• a.‘Lifetime expatriates’ who have been posted to various parts of the world by TNCs, or who have stayed in the Asian region in a particular sector (such as hotels). Families have usually accompanied them on these postings.
• b.Spouses accompanying ‘lifetime expatriates’ who have found employment on arrival in China.
• c.Younger single professional, or married couple who have taken the opportunity for a one-off posting to China, or have taken up an ‘expatriate’ local contract.
• d.Young single migrants who have travelled to China on holiday or for a temporary teaching post, and have used networks among the expatriate community to find permanent white-collar employment.

All four routes were found among British migrants, but in comparison Singapore migrants are more likely to be in the third category of one-off migrants. They are less likely to be found among ‘career expatriates’ because of the more recent entry of Singaporean companies into regional activities, but also because of greater concerns about children’s education and the need to remain linked to Singapore. Singaporeans are also very rarely found in the ‘traveller-turned-worker’ category (d), reflecting economic and social norms in Singapore. Graduates are encouraged to enter the labour force on graduation, rather than travel and ‘roughing it’ is also much less popular in Singapore, where higher levels of comfort are the norm.

The number of ‘traveller-turned-worker’ individuals among Britons was expected in Hong Kong where, until 1997, Britons could work without a work visa, but the number of Britons taking the ‘casual’ route to employment on the mainland is somewhat surprising. This is indicative of the greater freedom foreign nationals have had since the start of the reform process.

Experiences of migration are clearly filtered through the characteristics of ‘home’, the migrants, and the ‘host society’, and throughout this research it has been very clear that while there are some common experiences regardless of location in China, there are importance differences between the five study areas. These differences reflect the nature of the local economy and the recent political history. Main differences are:

• Great sense of isolation for non-working women in Guangzhou, Suzhou & Wuxi because of lack of paid work opportunities.
• Sense of ‘British’ identity heightened in Hong Kong, especially pre-1997, because of colonial relationship.
• Highly-disparate expatriate groups in Beijing, reflecting longer history of expatriate postings to the city.
• Greater mixing between different nationalities (and to some degree with locals) in Guangzhou, because of smaller size of expatriate group.
• · Particular form of ‘community’ construction and national identity formation for Singaporeans in Suzhou because of government-to-government industrial park.

This webpage is maintained by Dr Katie Willis, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX

Email: Katie.Willis@rhul.ac.uk

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