The invisible illegal immigrants (Chinese)

[realFedUp]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-yin2apr02,1,7227762.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

The invisible illegal immigrants
By Xiao-huang Yin, XIAO-HUANG YIN, professor and chair of the American Studies Program at Occidental College, is author of "Chinese American Literature Since the 1850s" and co-editor of "The Expanding Roles of Chinese A
April 2, 2006


ALL THE MEDIA attention on immigration has missed a critical part of the issue — Asians. Although the majority of illegal immigrants in this country come from Mexico, U.S. and Chinese scholars estimate that more than 500,000 Chinese have been smuggled into the United States since the late 1980s, making them the second-largest undocumented immigrant group.

Most of the illegal Chinese immgrants came from Fujian province in southeast China. They were nicknamed "18K travelers" because they typically paid $18,000 each to smuggling kingpins — called "snakeheads" in Chinese — to get into this country.

That cost has jumped to $70,000, which has forced many families into debt to pay for the trip. Half the fee is given to snakeheads as a down payment; the remainder is collected by smuggling networks when the immigrant "safely" arrives in the U.S. Newcomers often hold several jobs and work 80 hours a week to pay off their debts.

Illegal Chinese emigration to the U.S. reflects a conflict between the central government and local authorities in China. Beijing may well be embarrassed by the illegal exodus, but local officials often consider it a business opportunity because people-smuggling is a source of revenue. Some of these officials also benefit from the illegal outflow because it reduces the labor surplus in their regions. This may explain why the trade continues to flourish in China despite many high-profile trials of snakeheads.

continued

[demosincebirth]

1. I was reading a couple weeks ago that the U.S.

has over 35,000 illegals chinese in detention centers. The Chinese Government has refused to take then back. What do we do with them? Give them legal status?

[realFedUp]

3. There are Cubans also in detention since the 1980's...

the unspoken truths about this country.

[billybreathes71]

2. A Damn Good Case of the Mexicali Blues...

Illegal immigrants pose perhaps the most puzzling political questions today. What are we as a society supposed to do about these people who have entered America illegally? This question tears me up inside. Part of me thinks that they broke the law and should be deported immediately. Another part of me thinks that if I was a Mexican who couldn't afford to feed his family because the laisse-faire capitalism that exists there prevents the establishment of a middle class and because I have no prospects for employment and because there are very few social programs in Mexico to help the poor then I would make a run for the border just like the millions of others that have already done so. Loitering outside of a Home Depot in San Diego or El Paso looking for a days work beats the hell out of watching my kids pick through trash cans for food on the other side of the border.

I think the real crime taking place here isn't being perpetrated by these poor Mexicans who are swimming across the Rio Grande, or the Asians who are being shipped here in cargo containers. I think the real criminals are the Americans that hire these people and pay them next to nothing to do jobs that other Americans supposedly wouldn't do. Well other Americans wouldn't do these landscaping jobs, these cleaning service jobs, they wouldn't pick fruit and vegetables....it's true, they wouldn't, at least not for the $2-$3 an hour that the illegals are getting paid, they might for a few bucks more. What about the union construction worker who makes $15 an hour in Albuquerque? He's getting screwed because his scumbag boss is laying him off and hiring 3 illegal workers in his place. The illegal immigrants are getting screwed because they're being exploited by these greedy bastards. They have no benefits other than their low pay. Alas, I'm sure it's better being poor in Brownsville than it is in Tijuana.

President Bush wants to allow Mexicans to come here as "guest workers." These guest workers would have no path to permanent residency or citizenship, and their employers would not be obliged to pay them minimum wage. Ok, so the price of grapes and strawberries stay low if this program passes through Congress, but where does this guest worker program go next? Could it be possible that computer technicians will be imported from India to temporarily work for Microsoft in Seattle and be paid $8 an hour? Might there be temporary workers from Vietnam assembling Chevys in Michigan for $5.15 an hour. Multinational companies have the most to gain here; they'd import cheap labor, eliminate the cost of fringe benefits and lay Americans off. This would be free trade run amok. That's what I think this whole illegal immigrant debate is about. It's about lowering wages for American workers, it's about Bush and his cronies fulfilling their dream of eliminating the middle class.

We should do what we've been doing about illegal immigration up until this point, try half-heartedly to enforce the laws we already have. I beleive that any other solution will lead to the further decline and downfall of the American middle class. I don't want to lose my job to a guest worker, I don't want to pay double or triple for my wine and strawberries, and I definitely don't want to look a Mexican man, a fellow human being, and a fellow father in the eye and tell him that he has to go back to Mexico and send his kids back to the dumpsters to find food.

[realFedUp]

4. Welcome to DU billybreathes71

Thank you for your thoughtful post...there needs
to be changes in the way US corporations have kept wages low
and how NAFTA's not been working (David Sirota
has a good piece on it today at

http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=5BAF2E6A-B42A-E8AB-2A3F0E679FBCA3AA

We need to wake up in this country and make the changes
that meet reality and the values of the Gospel.