From RandDailyMail. Story by Richard Poplak.

As a rule, Chinese state-owned enterprises use imported labor, mostly in skilled positions.

Sino-African expert Deborah Brautigam, in an attempt to combat the widespread misapprehension that Chinese firms do not hire Africans, has run the numbers in a way that roughly tracks my anecdotal experience.

“I’ve not yet seen a case of a Chinese company in Africa hiring no local workers at all,” writes Brautigam on her blog. “But the percentage of Chinese and Africans varies widely.”

The following examples are taken almost at random: the 2007 Tanzania village water systems project employed 50 Chinese engineers and technicians and 500 local workers. The huge Merowe Dam project in Sudan appeared to have a ratio of one Chinese worker for every 10 Sudanese. This ratio inverted precipitously in Angola, where the Luanda Stadium project employed 700 Chinese and 250 Angolans, while the building of the Benguela Railway, between Munhango and Luau, employed 300 Chinese technicians and 300 Angolans at last count in 2010.

Overall, when Brautigam’s numbers are calculated, the ratio across the continent works out to around one Chinese worker for every five Africans.

It should be noted, however, that this is an approximation based on notoriously diffident numbers. Chinese state-owned enterprises are by nature opaque, and African governments likewise. But the numbers suggest that Chinese mega-projects employ Africans, often in large numbers. And because so much of the Chinese labor is primarily skilled, it gives lie to the evergreen accusation that China uses imported prison labor on its African projects.

If one million Chinese are living on the continent, subject to local laws and cultural mores, what does this mean for the workers themselves? Can they expect labour protection, disability benefits or any social safety nets? The answer is very often “no”. Chinese traders have no contact with Beijing or her ambassadors. More often than not, they are left to fend for themselves.

More formal labor with the state-owned enterprises is typically subject to Chinese labor regulations, which is famously unprogressive. These workers fall outside of African countries’ laws, a labor sub-category that suggests that dealing with the Chinese means coughing up a small chunk of sovereignty.

Still, it must be emphasized that no two African countries have dealt with Chinese labor the same way. In South Africa it would be politically unviable to have Chinese laborers working on construction projects. In Angola, the government does not care and Chinese work forces routinely undertake Chinese projects. There is absolutely no consistency from nation to nation, and no coherent approach at a multilateral level. It goes without saying that the African Union and Beijing have not tabled any deals or formal agreements.

This article first appeared on Good Governance Africa.

Read more at RandDailyMail.