Decode Labour Issues between Chinese Employers and Botswana Employees: A Case of China Shop in Gaborone
Yanyin Zi
Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies
Kyoto University
Chinese presence in Africa has been growing since 2000. To most of African people, contact with Chinese presence is not only in governmental projects, but also in their daily contacts with products made in China found in numerous China shops. The 1990’s witnessed an unprecedented growth of China shops in Botswana, expanding from cities into the rural areas. The booming of China shops in Botswana created jobs and provided cheaper products for the daily needs of the local people. However, the shops are criticized for saturating the local market and recently they are faced with strong regulations in an increasingly hostile business climate (Kalusopa, 2009). Chinese merchants continue to face numerous challenges with local people on labour and service issues. Since local news Mmegionline (November Jan 13, 2009) reported an article named “Shop assistants in Chinese stores ill-treated?”, labour relation in China shops started to gather government’s attention.
As Chinese engagement in Africa continues to expand, scholarly studies continue to focus primarily on the macro economic and political aspects of China-Africa relations. The people-to-people encounters and private entrepreneurial transactions are receiving less attention (Park, 2009). Although some reports are indicating that there are now over a million Chinese living and working in Africa, very little still is known about them. Moreover, the literature on China shops has so far concentrated very much on situations and on the topical value of the issue rather than deeper analysis of the people-to-people interactions (Dobler, 2009). Botswana is well known as an upper middle-income country, one of Africa’s few success stories. However, despite the awareness of trade and labour issues between Chinese merchants and local people, factors contributing to these problems are not clear.
This research analysed the labour relations between Chinese merchants and their local assistants in Botswana. Interviews and observations were used to generate narratives on the interpersonal relationships between Chinese shop keepers and their local assistants. Concepts of authority, sanctions and incentives are analysed. Giese (2013) argues that when exploring the reasons of the conflict, it is crucial to consider the motivations of the Chinese as social beings in a foreign situation, who hold perceptions of vulnerability and culturally divergent interpretation of overtly identical practices (Giese, 2013). Therefore, all of the analysis will be conducted without ignoring Chinese merchants’ vulnerabilities as foreigners.
The ongoing study found that Chinese merchants invest most of time on handling severe competition with rivals and often ignore the understanding of the culture of their host society. Despite many miscommunication and misunderstanding happens during their daily contacts with local assistants in China shops, most of which are ignored or considered as trivial. Furthermore, the study also found that there is a big gap between Chinese and Botswana culture on the expectation in labour relations. However, few Chinese merchants recognize it correctly. In most of the case, instead of looking for a way to satisfy their assistants’ requests, Chinese merchants would consider their assistants are trying to bother them and therefore prefer to change assistants once being asked for things beyond contract. The researcher also found that “continuous learning” can significantly contribute towards mutual understanding and facilitate good labour relations between Chinese merchants and the local society. Although labour relation in China shops is generally regarded as problematic, there are veteran Chinese merchants successfully build trustworthy relationship with their assistants. The implications of these findings and future direction of the research are discussed.
