Amanda Roberts

    aroberts42@live.com

    IN the 1930s and 1940s, America turned its back on Jewish refugees. Anne Frank’s family was denied American visas, and, along with thousands of others, left to become victims of the Nazis.

    The Franks would have done better applying for Chinese visas.

    While European countries and America closed doors to those asking for help, a few brave Chinese diplomats went out of their way to rescue as many refugees as they could, putting them on boats to Shanghai.

    Ho Feng Shan was the consul general of China in Vienna during that time. Sometimes called “China’s Schindler,” from 1938 to 1940 he saved thousands of Jewish lives by issuing them visas for Shanghai. Shanghai accepted over 20,000 Jewish refugees during that time.

    The similarities between the refugee crisis of WWII and the Syrian refugee crisis today cannot be ignored.

    But while Western powers openly debate accepting refugees, China is silent.

    China is vast with a growing economy, but it also has an aging population and a dwindling workforce. Accepting refugees would not only be morally right — it makes economic sense.

    Even though China has already announced plans to change the one-child policy into a two-child policy, it will be decades before the change has any effect.

    Economists predict that China’s workforce will shrink significantly by 2030, only 14 years from now. Second-children born next year will not be able to enter the workforce by then.

    Statistics show that immigrants increase gross domestic product. More people means more production.

    In 2014, Germany was also facing a shortage of millions of skilled workers. After Germany agreed to accept 800,000 Syrian refugees, International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde said, “If the influx [of refugees] is well-managed, yes, it is bound to be a positive in a society which is aging and which has the fiscal space to accommodate it.”

    Economist Thomas Piketty, the author of “Capital in the 21st Century,” recently wrote that the refugee crisis represents an “opportunity for Europeans to jump-start the continent’s economy.”

    Why shouldn’t China take a bite of this economy-boosting pie?

    There are other ways immigrant populations can benefit China. More workers pay more taxes, which benefits everyone, especially future generations. Public education in London, England, has seen extraordinary improvement in recent years, much of which is credited to the city’s large immigrant population.

    Immigrants bring different skills and abilities. They increase competition in labor markets, increasing the incentive for natives to learn new skills. Workplace diversity can boost productivity, as a number of U.S. and U.K. studies have shown.

    Over the last few years, China has been easing and tweaking its visa policies in order to lure overseas talent. Syria has thousands of willing and eager workers looking for a new place to settle down and raise their families — not just stay for a few years and leave, as many Western workers do.

    Immigrants are often eager to assimilate into their new communities, learning the language and accepting local culture so they can call where they live “home.”

    China has a long history of welcoming those in need and should build on the legacy of men like Ho Feng Shan. China should welcome Syrian refugees with open arms.

    (The author is a Shenzhen Daily copy editor.)