Immigration and its Regulation in the People’s Republic of China

Abstract

The People’s Republic of China is a country of emigration since thousands of years, and remained alike in the latest decades, too. Decrease in fertility and the population’s aging, however, resulted shortages in particular segments of labour force, and consequently the mitigation and stimulation of highly skilled immigration became the country’s interest. Mostly former emigrants, today Chinese diaspora came to the focus of regulation and institutional development. The rapidly growing economy since the 1990s is an increasing challenge on the fields of entry control and border security and integration. On the one hand the number of students, residing in the country, grew forty-one times higher – partly because of the conscious development in higher education – on the other hand refugees and illegal immigrants became more and more problematic, especially those who came from North Korea starting with the 1990s and those African traders who did not even try to legitimize their situation in China. A new immigration act was issued in 2012 which, however, did not solve all the problems.