You know you're no longer a Communist society
when people want to come in, because they can improve their lives by doing so;
Most of the Nigerians in Beijing are traders. They buy mass-produced Chinese products - from cooking utensils to fake designer clothing - and ship them to Nigeria to sell them at a profit.
....Toyin [Lawal] does not only sell food. "I sell all sorts of things. Shoes and bags. Some schools order their uniforms from me. They send me money and I go off to buy what they want."
She usually orders her clothes from manufacturers in Guangzhou. There is already a big African community in the southern port city.
Kabir Amuda lived there before moving to Beijing. The 30-year-old exports wall tiles and flooring to Nigeria, where "many people are building houses these days."
"When people stop buying tiles I'll look for something else," he continues. "Maybe tomorrow I'll be selling car parts."
Even the overt racism is tolerable,
"Chinese people hate blacks," Toyin says. "Very few taxis stop for me for example." Because there are worse things in life back home in Nigeria;
Nevertheless, they say they like living in China. Kabir has married a Chinese woman and Toyin says she feels safer than in Nigeria. "There are so many attacks and violence in my country. Here I can go home at 3 in the morning. I love China because of that."
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