Roy Xavier Scholar at the University of California | Macanese diaspora is a ‘huge network’ largely unused

Roy Xavier

Roy Eric Xavier, a researcher and visiting scholar from the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, is being supported in Macau by the US J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship. He has been selected for a project to be developed at the University of Macau during the next month.
In this project, the scholar will offer a new perspective on the region’s social and cultural history, which has implications for its present and future. The Times spoke with him in order to learn more about his new perspective and how it relates to the history of the territory.

Macau Daily Times – In your work you have concluded that the ability of Macau to survive and prosper over the years is somehow related to the movement of different groups in and out of the city in which many eventually settled. This created an environment that was culturally tolerant, but also which economically and socially benefited from that broad mix of influences. Do we still have this multicultural influence and benefits nowadays?
Roy Xavier – Well, although I’ve visited Macau every year for the last couple of years, I’m not a resident so I cannot really say if day-to-day life is like that. However from what I can see from the outside, and certainly from the history, there has been a long history of cultural influences from different cultures, not just Portuguese but all of Southeast Asia and most recently from all over the world. Macau has always been a sort of ‘cultural crossroads’. My study has always been to look at the cultural diversity of Macau and also how that impacts today on economic diversity. In my opinion, Macau is still a connection between East and West, it is still a ‘cultural crossroads’ so I think it still has that role.

MDT – Do you think that this region has some kind of “extra potential” due to its history that makes it more able to perform that role than other neighboring regions?
RX – I really think it does! And I think that is mainly because of its cultural diversity. Let me give you an example: Macau’s major competitor, because it is so dependent on gaming, is Las Vegas. Las Vegas and Macau are pretty similar in development trends. In the 1990s, Las Vegas was dependent on high-rollers in the same way Macau has been and the problem was that they put a lot of money into moving beyond high-rollers to appeal to families and middle class visitors. So they built new hotels, different types of venues. They tried to appeal to this group, and this worked for about ten years until the global recession and then Las Vegas crashed even worse than the rest of the US economy leading to 11 percent unemployment, a house market crash, and so on. What I mean with this is that ‘throwing money at it’ is not always the solution. So what did they do? After learning from these experiences, they realized that they needed to expand the economy somewhere, so the next solution was digital resources. Use the internet and technologies in different areas, including medicine. I think that this experience provides a lesson for Macau. You cannot be so dependent on gaming, there has to be something else, you have to use the resources that you have. One of the biggest resources that Macau has is its connections to the outside world, given its international communities are fairly large, and provide a huge network. This is something that Macau has not yet tapped, and that is what I am advocating, the need to start to tap that network. The first step for that is certainly to start gathering this information from a business perspective.

MDT – Who are these people in this network and how can they contribute to this new development of Macau?
RX – This network includes many associations around the world who are international Macanese, not just Portuguese but Goans, Malaysians, Thais, Chinese, Japanese and many others that have some kind of cultural tie to Macau. Their parents did not necessarily connect with Macau other than having a nostalgic feeling but this feeling was passed along to their children and grandchildren, which I am part of too. This newer generation is well positioned as professionals. They now work for places like Google, Apple, Chase Manhattan Bank, Genentech and other huge companies that have global perspectives. They too have global perspectives and they wish to connect back to Macau. So, one of the solutions could be to develop international exchanges. Countries like India, China, Germany, and the US have done this to a certain way. Macau has not, maybe because they had too much wealth and that made them complacent.

MDT – In those areas you mentioned, will Macau be able to compete with Singapore, for example?
RX – I think it can, with the right training and expertise. And that is why the international exchanges are so important. If we do site visits, internships, and training sessions and we have these experts coming to do start-ups and incubators like they are doing currently in Shanghai and Beijing, those types of connections will lead to a transfer of knowledge and expertise that ultimately will lead to an expansion of business.

MDT – So, what’s missing? Is it as simple as connecting those dots?
RX – It is a matter of connecting dots, and in order to connect the dots you have to know what the dots are. We have to do a little research, and it is fairly easy to do. We can gather that research under an archive which serves two purposes: one – it provides profiles of these professionals, where they work and who they are and their interests; two – it reinforces the historical and cultural connection and enables us to collect information from them. That is why I think there is a strong correlation between the cultural and the economic.

MDT – The government has been speaking about attracting local talents among high qualified professionals that are working abroad. Are these people available for that?
RX – I think that there are many locals who went abroad and got training that can contribute and are willing to. Most of those are in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK. In fact, I think the government has neglected the English speaking countries a little – they were a little left out of the loop. I want to raise this issue because Portuguese speaking countries bet that it is fine, they are part of the culture, but I think you are losing a huge advantage by not connecting with locals in English speaking countries. I am sure that motivation from companies and people is there.