The Guardian: "China cracks down on African immigrants and traders"

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The red vinyl banner hanging from the front of Canaan market, a multi-storey wholesale emporium of cheap jeans and hair extensions, begins promisingly "Welcome to Guangzhou" and concludes, less warmly, "Please have your passport ready for checks by police".

This southern city in China's Guangzhou province has drawn hundreds of thousands of immigrants from across Africa in the last decade: from Burkina Faso and Somalia, Ivory Coast and Ghana, Tanzania and Angola. The banner and the dwindling numbers of traders here attest to an immigration crackdown that has alienated many and left young men injured and languishing in detention, community leaders say.

"You go home: the police are knocking on your door. You are on the street: police will hold you. You are on the bus, inside a restaurant – it's everywhere," says Ojukwu Emma, president of the Association of the Nigerian Community, whose compatriots account for almost half the migrants.

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"African people should obey the Chinese government's laws, because some are doing drugs and are criminals," says Ah Ling, who runs a T-shirt stall in Canaan market. But she is careful to add that others are law-abiding.

When Professor Barry Sautman of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology surveyed residents recently, about half had a neutral impression of the African community, he says, and far more had a good or excellent impression than a negative one. Traders often rely on Chinese staff. Friendships have developed. About 500 Nigerians are in mixed marriages and many more couples cohabit, say residents.

Full story: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/06/china-crackdown-african-immigration

Well well well, I wonder if the Chinese are taking cues with Arizona Republican politicians. As a Chinese-American it's interesting to find out about an African community in China. By the way, wasn't there a movie alluding to that already this summer...the remake of The Karate Kid?