SHOP and BUY - Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States (Asian American History and Culture)
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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 304.873051 EAN: 9781566397322 ISBN: 1566397324 Label: Temple University Press Manufacturer: Temple University Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 221 Publication Date: 1999-12-09 Publisher: Temple University Press Studio: Temple University Press
Customer Rating: Summary: Smuggled Chinese Comment: This is an interesting book, an obvious result of extensive research. It best serves as a historical reference tool for anyone interested in the crisis of Chinese being smuggled to the U.S. in the 80's and early 90's. That is also its shortcoming, since it lacks any reference to more recent events related to the smuggling of Chinese into the U.S. This was a major disappointment to me for a book published in 2000. The book would be well-served to be updated with reference to new routes being used by smugglers; the INS Global Reach program, new offices in China, and efforts to disrupt the smuggling trade; the Chih Yung interdiction and other boats stopped off Mexico and Central America; the Spring 1999 influx of smuggler's ships in Guam and Tinian; and the impact on the smuggling of Chinese as a result of the 1996 immigration reform law.
No one knows how many Chinese are being smuggled into the United States, but credible estimates put the number at 50,000 arrivals each year. Astonishing as this figure is, it represents only a portion of the Chinese illegally residing in the United States. Smuggled Chinese presents a detailed account of how this traffic is conducted and what happens to the people who risk their lives to reach Gold Mountain. When the Golden Venture ran aground off New York's coast in 1993 and ten of the 260 Chinese on board drowned, the public outcry about human smuggling became front-page news. Probing into the causes and consequences of this clandestine traffic, Ko-Lin Chin has interviewed more than 300 people smugglers, immigrants, government officials, and business owners in the United States, China and Taiwan. Their poignant and chilling testimony describes a flourishing industry in which smugglers, big and little snakeheads, command fees as high as $30,000 to move desperate but hopeful men and women around the world. For many who survive the hunger, filthy and crowded conditions, physical and sexual abuse, and other perils of the arduous journey, life in the United States, specifically in New York's Chinatown, is a disappointment if not a curse. Few will return to China, though, because their families depend on the money and status gained by having a relative in the States. In "Smuggled Chinese", Ko-Lin Chin puts a human face on this intractable international problem, showing how flaws in national policies and lax law enforcement perpetuate the cycle of desperation and suffering. He strongly believes, however, that the problem of human smuggling will continue for as long as China's citizens are deprived of fundamental human rights and economic security. "Smuggled Chinese" will engage readers interested in human rights, Asian and Asian-American studies, urban studies, and sociology. Author note: Ko-lin Chin is Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, Newark. He is author of many articles on illegal Chinese immigration and Chinese gangs, and writes in both English and Chinese. He is author of Chinatown Gangs: Extortion, Enterprise and Ethnicity.
