Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States Franklin Ng (bio) Ko-lin Chin . Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States. Foreword by Douglas S. Massey. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999. xxiv, 226 pp. Hardcover $64.50, ISBN 1-56639-732-4. Paperback $22.95, ISBN 1-56639-733-2. Why, and by what means, do Chinese illegal immigrants try to enter the United States? Ko-lin Chin, a professor of criminology at Rutgers University, has attempted to provide answers to these and other questions in his new book, Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States. In June 1993 , when the Golden Venture ran aground near New York City, the event received widespread coverage in the American media. Several hundred Chinese illegal immigrants braved the cold waters of the Atlantic to escape from their ship. Ten passengers died, and others were injured. This was by no means the only instance of clandestine Chinese immigration to the United States: between 1992 and 1995 at least thirty-six ships bearing Chinese passengers were detected near American waters. That so many attempts were being made to ship Chinese to the United [End Page 72] States led one immigration official to declare: "The way these boats have been coming in, I wouldn't be surprised if I saw one land in Topeka, Kansas. They seem to have the ability to show up anywhere" (p. 64 ). An authority on Chinese gangs in America, Chin decided to investigate the international traffic in Chinese illegal immigrants by conducting research in both the United States and China. In an office on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, near New York City's Chinatown, his associates interviewed three hundred Chinese illegal immigrants. He found many of his informants by using the snowball technique of asking his friends, his interviewers, and the interviewees to supply the names of other informants. All his subjects were paid forty dollars in cash after they completed their interviews. Since the illegal immigrants were Fujianese, he also made two research trips to Fujian Province in China to learn more about their places of origin. He made one trip to Fuzhou City in 1993 and another to Pingtan County in 1995. On both occasions, he was accompanied by his father-in-law, who had been born and raised in Fujian, and who helped with the research and interviews. The Fujianese who immigrate to the United States come from a region of China with a population higher than the national average: 248 persons per square mile as compared to the national figure of 118. Fujian has two seaports, at Xiamen and Fuzhou, which have historically been centers of commerce and smuggling. Like Guangdong, Fujian is an active participant in the increasing liberalization and market-oriented economic change that is sweeping China. Its residents are all too aware of the ubiquitous foreign businessmen and overseas Chinese in their midst. The Fujianese especially envy the prominent status of the meiguoke, the Chinese from the United States. They covet that prestige and desire it for themselves, not aware that in America the meiguoke may have only a marginalized status and low income. And so they migrate, from places in Fujian such as Changle City, Fuzhou City, Tingjiang Township, Mawei District, and Lianjiang County. With contact and informal trade between Taiwan and China on the increase since 1987, Taiwanese and Taiwanese ships have been heavily involved in the clandestine trafficking in Chinese illegal immigrants. Chin illuminates many fascinating aspects of this illegal traffic from Fujian. There are a variety of push and pull factors, including economic conditions, the desire to maximize household income, the quest for better job opportunities and higher wages, and the hope for political asylum. But once a steady flow of illegal immigrants is initiated, then migrant networks and supportive frameworks exist to help perpetuate the clandestine migration. The actors involved in this human smuggling include "big snakeheads" (arrangers and investors), "small snakeheads" (recruiters), transporters, corrupt officials, guides and crew members, enforcers, support personnel, and debt collectors. Chinese illegal immigrants may arrive by air, sea, overland travel, or a combination of these methods. Each has its [End Page 73] own advantages and disadvantages, which...