Restrictions on the employment of foreigners: Will it hit Shanghai next?

Guangdong Province is mulling a new law that will categorise all jobs into "encouraged", "restricted" and "forbidden" for foreigners in a bid to restrict the employment of foreigners and to ban them from certain jobs.

Xinhua elucidates:

For jobs in the "encouraged" category, the potential foreign employees will be issued permits. Employers will be charged fees for hiring foreigners for "restricted" positions. The employment of foreigners without permits will be illegal, said the spokesman, without indicating specific jobs in the three categories. Foreign students and foreigners without residence permits are ineligible to work without government approval, and they risk fines of up to 1,000 yuan (US$130) for working illegally.

The report also had some eye-popping figures:

An estimated 10,000 foreigners are living in Guangdong, many of them financially insecure and involved in crime, such as drug trafficking, fraud and theft. In the first half of this year, 102 foreigners were arrested on criminal charges, more than triple the number of the same period last year.

102 criminals out of a total of 10,000 foreigners? Wow. That's a pretty high rate of criminals isn't it? And oh yes, the poor foreigners, financially insecure and involved in crime. Xinhua really doesn't like to paint a good picture of the foreigners, or does it? And when those nice new rules will come to Shanghai next is anyone's guess!

Related links
Xinhua: Foreigners to face restrictions in Guangdong

Photo of crazy laowai from Shanghai Sky Photo removed at request of the "crazy laowai".