Portrait Image
Guoli Wu
Position Title
- Ph.D. Candidate | Institute of International Relations, China Foreign Affairs University
Governing Irregular Migration in China: Approaches, Characteristics, and Change (2000–2025)
People
Event Date
Event Date
Location
Zoom & Andrews Room (2203 SS&H)
Speaker: Guoli Wu
Abstract :
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, with China’s economic development and increasing international exchanges, cross-border mobility has gradually become a noticeable phenomenon in Chinese society. Among these developments, irregular migration, commonly referred to in China as San Fei (“illegal entry, illegal residence, and illegal employment”), has become an issue of growing governance concern. However, compared with traditional immigration countries, the overall scale of foreign inflows into China remains relatively small, and the absolute number of irregular migrants is also limited. In this context, why does China place significant emphasis on the governance of irregular migration?
To address this question, this study examines developments from 2000 to the present. It explores the main patterns of irregular migration in China, the legal and policy instruments used to regulate it, the governance approaches and underlying logics, and the institutional changes that have taken place in recent years. Overall, irregular migration in China can be characterized by “low volume but high social visibility.” Drawing on a long-standing administrative tradition of regulating population mobility, governance practices often take the form of targeted enforcement within administrative and public security frameworks, shaped by broader concerns about social order and security. In recent years, with reforms to the immigration administration system, including the establishment of the National Immigration Administration (NIA) and adjustments to regulations on the employment of foreigners, China’s migration governance framework has continued to evolve.