The invisible illegal immigrants

Many Americans think all the immigrants who are here illegally are Latino. Asians are the second largest group and struggle just as much as the Latinos do. You can read the amount of money they have to spend to get smuggled here and the problems most of them have once they get here. DP

By Xiao-huang Yin, professor and chair of the American Studies Program at Occidental College

Los Angeles Times : 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.
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