In many countries in the Asian region, governments have tried to capitalize on their available or surplus manpower by sending labourers overseas. The Chinese governments, too, is an exporter of migrant labourers – people whose absence, it hopes, would help, would add to Chaina’s foreign exchange reserves. In the decade from 1983 to 1993 the number of labourers sent overseas increased almost sixfold to 173,654, generating over US$6.8 billion. The majority of these labourers were males from southern China going on construction contracts for one to two years. The early 21st century, they were employed in over 100 countries