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Volume No. 1 Issue No. 93 - Monday February 12, 2007 |
The Chinese are Coming
 Editorial - TheDominican.net
Much has been said and written about the support of the Chinese government to the people of Dominica since the two countries opened diplomatic relations in 2003.
Perhaps the most visible sign of this collaboration is the Chinese financed multi-million dollar stadium in the heart of the capital Roseau, which is nearing completion. The Chinese have also pledged millions of dollars to build roads and homes for Dominicans.
Today, a number of Dominicans are beginning to ask, at what price. It is becoming very clear that there is an invasion of Chinese into Dominica. What started as a trickle is quickly becoming a flood of new immigrants.
The Chinese immigrants have moved quickly to buy up prime real estate and set up businesses. Today most of King George V Street, which was once the beacon of local entrepreneurship with locally owned businesses like By-Trini, AC Shillingford, and Orchards Restaurant, is almost completely overrun by Chinese businesses. Some are even predicting that this may the next China town.
Rum shops, fried chicken joints, and corner groceries are just some of the businesses been sucked up. Many believe that the new immigrants are given loans by their governments to be in a position to quickly make those purchases. Rather than set up traditional Chinese restaurants, the new immigrants are simply taking over existing small businesses with little added investments or job creation.
While there are no official estimates of the number of Chinese living in Dominica, the numbers are already believed to be in the several hundreds. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the Chinese government is leaning on the Dominica government to issue as much as 3 000 visas to the Chinese in exchange for the stadium.
The trend is indeed worrying for many locals. Many fear that the laws of Dominica do not provide adequate safeguards to prevent the complete take over of land and businesses by foreign persons. The country with its legendary hospitality and openness to strangers may suddenly wake up to a place that they no longer recognize.
Debate is growing both locally and within the Diaspora on what this all means. One blogger to a popular message board made the following comment: �I am alarmed at the lack of attention being paid to the influx of Chinese immigrants to Dominica and particularly with the extensive purchase of prime Dominican land and property.
Are we simply sitting by and allowing our country, our precious homeland, to be sold out from under us? Are we destined in the near future to be second class citizens in the home of our birth? When do we start to sit up and take notice? When do we start to be alarmed and call those responsible for this pending calamity to be accountable to us? �
The blogger warned rather ominously that �we have to do something about this. Dominica will soon slip out of grasp � sooner rather than later.� This writer could not agree more.
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