*EPF302 10/04/00
Chinese Illegal Aliens: What Motivates Them
(First of a series on Chinese illegal alien smuggling) (800)
By Karen Mah and Jane Morse
Washington File Writers
Introduction: Each year, thousands of Chinese pay criminals known as "snakeheads" tens of thousands of dollars for a chance to illegally enter the United States with the dream of making their "fortunes."
They endure long, difficult voyages, months in hiding, beatings at the hands of snakehead "enforcers." When they get to the United States, they find themselves trapped by debt and their illegal status.
Many never escape.
This is the first of a series of articles, provided by the State Department's Office of International Information Programs, that will examine their plight.
Motivation of Chinese Illegal Aliens
The search for economic opportunity and social pressure are the top two reasons why some Chinese choose to leave their homeland, according to American immigration scholars.
International immigration theory describes "push" and "pull" factors: Greater economic opportunity "pulls" immigrants to the United States, while lower wages and unemployment "push" emigrants from China.
Immigrants believe they can become wealthy in the United States, known as "the Golden Mountain", because wages in the United States are high relative to wages in China. The majority of illegal aliens originate in small villages around China's coastal cities, especially Fuzhou, in Fujian Province.
According to U.S. scholars of China, workers in China earn twice as much in the average city as in rural areas, and seven or eight times more in large coastal cities, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, than in rural areas.
In the United States, however, the average income is 20 times the average income in Shanghai. To many workers leaving rural areas in China, the promise of high wages in the United States justifies the risk inherent in entering the United States illegally as well as the expense of smuggling fees.
The disadvantage of working in the United States is that the higher wages are accompanied by a higher cost of living. And the relatively low (by U.S. standards) wages earned by illegal aliens are generally insufficient to provide minimum comforts to immigrants trying to pay off enormous smuggling debts.
An illegal alien can expect to earn $3 to $4 an hour as a worker in a restaurant or garment factory and will often be expected to work 80 or 90 hours a week to pay off debts, observed Peter Kwong, a Chinese-American scholar and author of "Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor." In an interview with The Washington File, Kwong said that illegal immigrants are "constantly trapped in that low end, sweat shop market," because they lack job and language skills.
Although China's growing number of unemployed is a "push factor" for out-migration, it is important to note that workers who leave China are not among China's poorest. Illegal immigrants tend to come from developed areas in China that have the infrastructures to provide communication with and transportation to the West. Chinese who choose to enter the United States illegally must have access to significant funds. Smuggling fees run as high as U.S. $60,000 and are usually paid with loans from family members and friends. In contrast, most of the people living in poverty in China have less exposure to the lures of the West and cannot afford to travel -- legally or otherwise.
The faith that some communities in China have in the "American success story" causes them to generate a great deal of social pressure on their members to emigrate abroad. Fuzhounese, especially, have a long tradition of sending at least one family member to make a living abroad. More recently, having a family member in the United States has become a status symbol. "When people (in China) get together, they always talk about how their sons or daughters or relatives or husbands or brothers are doing in the United States," according to author and scholar Ko-lin Chin, who wrote "Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States."
In addition to pressures from family and friends, Chinese are also encouraged to move abroad by smugglers or "snakeheads." Sometimes, smugglers advertise work overseas, but most find their customers through connections and by word-of-mouth. Snakeheads operating in Chinese communities add to the phenomenon of small areas generating large numbers of illegal emigrants. Snakeheads -- much more than the emigrants themselves -- profit from illegally sending their clients abroad. Some scholars estimate that human smuggling generates an estimated $8 billion a year worldwide for criminal enterprises.
Next: The Risks of Illegal Immigration -- by Air, Land, and Sea Travel -- to the United States
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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