Algeria as a Destination of Migrants – A Comparative Study of Sub-Saharan and Chinese Migrants

Thanks to current high revenues from the gas and oil sectors the Algerian treasury is well filled. With this capital and the aid of foreign investors, economic and infrastructural problems should be resolved. Primarily China, within the scope of its interests in Africa, is taking part of this process of development for approximately the last eight years. Because of the benevolent attitude of the Algerian state towards the Chinese migrant labourers they already form the biggest group of foreign employees in the country and a counter current to the centuries-old subsaharian migration. Both migrations with the final destination Algeria in the course of the last decade and the reactions of Algerian society thereon will be described in this article. This comparative study deals with this phenomenon, which is until now extensively unexplored. It analyses within the context of Global Area Studies and on the base of multidisciplinary research approaches the development of global migration movements and their translocal and local linkages. The aim of this study is to show the range across society and the effect of migration movements in Algeria as well as their potential for the realisation of the planned reform processes for the next years.