Foreigners in China Seeking Employment Face Difficulties

Foreigners in China Seeking Employment Face Difficulties
Nov 28, 2013 By eChinacities.com

According to an economic report by “All Earthly Companies”, following the economic downturn experienced in Europe and North America, the fast growth of China’s GDP has attracted many foreigners to come to China seek employment. However, the pressure faced by these foreigners keeps increasing to the point in which the work opportunities they had previously enjoyed have now become fewer, and in which finding employment has been getting increasingly difficult. The most basic work that foreigners could perform upon coming to China has been to teach English; however, nowadays if these foreigners do not possess the adequate abilities and academic credentials, they will not be able to procure a work visa.

The following are the reasons for the difficulty faced by foreigners when searching for employment in China:

  1. Foreigners are no longer rare. Up until 2011, foreigners have entered and exited China a total number of 54.12 million times; of this number, the number of foreigners that have made China their permanent residence (by staying for a length of over half a year) is close to 600,000, a total that is 30 times the amount from 30 years ago.
  2. Criminal cases involving foreigners have markedly increased. There is an increase of crimes committed by foreigners in large cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
  3. Foreigners no longer enjoy better treatment than that given to Chinese.

Source: Global Times

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Keywords: employment for foreigners foreign employment foreign workers Foreigners in China Seeking Employment Face Difficulties

12 Comments

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ikayvillon

not all Chinese people are bad there are some that are so good to be with and ot all foreigners that stay in china are doing bad things.they just want to work but unfortunately not given a chance to show that they are exceptional with their own abilities due to too much security and requirements that china need to give these people working visa just like on what i have experienced in china

Dec 09, 2013 16:24 Report Abuse

Raunchy

you say not all Chinese are bad but then you say all foreigners that stay in china are doing bad things, you cant say Chinese in china are all good, when most Chinese say to foreigners, when in Rome do as the Romeos, foreigners are only doing what Chinese teach them to do. when in china do as the Chinese.

Dec 09, 2013 19:34 Report Abuse

Raunchy

sounds like your a chinese student that did not pass the last exam as your teacher can see how bad you are. its go to show how bad chinese people are

Dec 09, 2013 16:14 Report Abuse

zhejiangguy

This article is really quite atrocious. How many foreigners are in China-it is such a low number versus overall percentage of the population! I think that China will struggle to fill positions in the future with the candidates of the quality that is required. The visa situation is baffling at the best of times although I do agree that no foreigners under the age of 23 or 24 should be able to work full time on a working visa as they do not have enough life and work experience to bring much value. I believe a new category of visa should be brought in to facilitate the need for foreign languages.

Dec 05, 2013 10:21 Report Abuse

Visco8

I find it ironic that so many Chinese schools, Uni's, etc. are screaming out for English teachers, but, on the other hand, this govt is trying it's hardest to get rid of them! Sure, there's a few deadheads here, but generally the foreigners do a good job sometimes against trying odds.The Chinese students (as a product of their Educ. Syst) are not the best thinkers in the world, rarely an original thought,no critical thinking whatsoever etc largely just... plain boring!!sorry about that.But as spoken teachers, it makes our job much harder. On that point, I know to qualify(technically?) for work visa, you need a Bacheleor or higher,now why would you need such an Educ to teach here?? It's a joke! And if you did have the quals (esp in Education or Linguistics) you'd probably work in a good country for more pay & better quality of life.

Dec 04, 2013 13:29 Report Abuse

Nessquick

I am just looking for new job. in one of many website, i have registered myself, have already almost 100 recruiters viewed my CV, yet any single call i have received.

Nov 29, 2013 14:29 Report Abuse

Nessquick

nono, i mean here in china, using chinese number ...

Dec 04, 2013 14:32 Report Abuse

Guest2098644

I would like to say that it is not as easy as before, more red tape to get through to get the expert's permit. Having said that, a lot of the rules changes can be overcome by people serious enough to work in China and provide a service that does not take jobs away from Chinese people, for example only an American or British teacher could give accurate lessons in their native tongues and be deemed authentic. Other jobs, like management and engineering, are dead end jobs that are only given due to the lack of talent in that particular area. A good example would be in the oil industry. My Chinese buddy said that in the past his oil rig routinely hired foreign born engineers to help with the running of daily operations. Since last year, those jobs have all been given back to Chinese and even if the candidate is over qualified, they cannot win the job over a Chinese citizen now. I find this ironic because citizens of China always want to immigrate to other countries and take up jobs and western governments do little to stop it because laws are such that if a person is qualified and a good fit, employers must not discriminate. In China, however, it's China for Chinese and to heck with the world. If we need you, you are welcome to stay and take whatever we can give you. Otherwise, go out. The common Chinese people are a good bunch, friendly and considerate to foreigners. The big problems are from the higher ups. This is why whenever a foreigner rides his e-bike and bumps someone's toes, he is the next posterboy of evil and some daring hero local boy did his part to make sure another opium war would not happen again. This nonsense all started with Yang Rui's rant in 2012 on his Weibo blog. China was a great country to visit pre Olympics era, but now it is getting worse and worse everyday. Having said that, if you tow the line and keep under the radar, mind your business, and do things in the right and Chinese way, you can still enjoy a fair life in China.

Nov 29, 2013 11:36 Report Abuse

coineineagh

"In the right and Chinese way" - I love it. A local wouldn't even detect the sarcasm if you translated and explained it. Working in China is harder now, due to stricter government requirements. Stuff like "native English speakers only" is fairly rigid and discriminating to competent near-native speakers like Indians, Filipinos and Europeans, but on the whole it's a good thing that there's some extra screening and competence checking. If only they had better ways of screening. I'm qualified for the majority of ESL jobs out there, so I don't feel under pressure in any way. As for the copy-pasted BS in the article: (1) Foreigners have increased from 'exceedingly rare' to 'very rare', and Chinese are quick to put on their discrimination caps and talk about 'lao wai la ji' white trash foreigners (oh sure, there are a few here too, i met one recently). China is just itching to reach the point in social development where immigrants are inferior to their own citizenry; it's hard to even comtemplate why people want to take over this ignorant arrogance of western multicultural societies. The government probably sees foreigners as a convenient lightning rod that western politicians use, and wants to do exactly the same. (2) *MEDIA COVERAGE* of crimes involving foreigners has increased without regard to the safety and public image of foreigners, largely because the gov't is in the habit of pointing fingers to others to distract attention away from its own inadequacies. Or even better; blame the foreigners for them! (3) Foreigners are still treated like dangerous animals due to a deliberate lack of understanding and cultural sensitivity, but nonetheless are still paid above local salary levels for their competent (mostly teaching) activities. The relative salary level of foreigners is getting lower, but it's at least decades away from the point that immigrant salaries are on equal level to local salaries.

Nov 29, 2013 16:11 Report Abuse

Robk

This is a stupidly sweeping article. As a foreigner that has lived in China for over seven years, I have resided in both rural villages and top-tier cities. I can assure you that foreigners are still very much rare overall. Chinese media uses foreign "criminal" actions and blows them up in the media to try and downplay their own problems. For example the attack in Tiananmen Square, government headquaters being blown up and much more. The third statement truly depends where you live. In much of China, a foreigner is still treated very differently than a common Chinese person. In many of these ways good, in some, awkward or not so good. This is just garbage journalism with no real research, just delivering the same trash with new packaging. You want to know the REAL China, get away from Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. They you may actually have a semi-valid article.

Nov 29, 2013 10:39 Report Abuse

Vyborg

Numbers always seem to be problematic eh. Up till 2011, 54.12 million entries/exits... since the dawn of history? Since Marco Polo, who was number 1 on this list? Since 1979, when Deng said 'Open Sesame'? Since Y2K? Foreigners are no longer rare. 600000 permanent residents, that's a whopping 5/10000 of a percent of the population. A multicultural society indeed. But it's 30 times as much as 30 years ago. One might expect an increase in crimes committed by foreigners. (whining:)'But it's 30 times as much as 30 years ago!' !RED NUTTER ALERT! Foreigners no longer enjoy better treatment etc. Bwah. Depends on what you're looking at, where you're looking from and whom you ask.

Nov 28, 2013 22:03 Report Abuse