The Phenomenon of "Human Smuggling" in Fujian Province

Each year, thousands of Chinese pay criminals known as "snakeheads" tens of thousands of dollars for a chance to illegally enter the United States and make their "fortunes." They endure long, difficult voyages, months in hiding, and 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.

Due to a variety of cultural and geographic factors, the majority of Chinese illegal aliens originate from just a few places in China. The region along the east coast of China is a source of extensive illegal immigration to the United States. In the past, most emigrants came from Guangdong Province, but today most come from Fujian Province or Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province. In each sending area there is both ready access to ports of departure and enough prosperity to make travel to the United States economically viable.

Today, the majority of emigrants departing for destinations around the globe originate in China's Fujian Province. The mountainous region of Fujian lies north of Guangdong and across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan. The placement of export industries into coastal areas contributed to a successful Fujianese economy. Fujian supplements light industry with natural resources such as coal, iron, limestone, hydroelectricity, forestry and fishing and traditional crops such as rice, sugar, tea and fruit.

The search for economic opportunity and social pressure are the top two reasons why some Chinese chose to leave their homeland, according to 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. 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. "When the income differential between China and the United States is 1:2 rather than 1:15 or 1:20, that is when Fujianese will stop going and even come back," one Chinese entrepreneur said. To many workers leaving rural areas in China, the promise of high wages in the United States justifies the risk inherent to entering the country illegally as well as the expense of any smuggling fees.

The disadvantage of working in the United States is that 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. Illegal immigrants are "constantly trapped in that low end, sweat shop market," because they lack job and language skills.

It is important to note that workers who leave China tend to come from developed areas 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 $60,000 and are usually paid with loans from family members and friends. In contrast, most of the 300 million people living in poverty in China have less exposure to the lures of the West and cannot afford to travel -- legally or otherwise.

Around the Fuzhou area, emigration abroad is commonly seen as the only possible way for an individual to succeed. In some villages, no industries have developed because the majority of workers the ages between from 18 to 45 have left China. Families will loan money to pay smuggling fees, but will not invest in a relative trying to start a business in China, both because of the difficulties of running a business in China and because of the attitude that more opportunity exists in the United States.

The faith that some communities have in the "American success story" causes them to generate a great deal of social pressure on their members to emigrate abroad. More recently, having a family member in the United States has become a status symbol. "When people 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 an expert on Fujianese immigrants.

Not only do some Chinese feel that they must go to the United States to be successful, they also feel the need to appear successful after they do. Although they often find themselves crushed by long work hours and financial demands, Chinese illegal immigrants may be embarrassed to admit their condition to family and friends at home. In addition, the money illegal immigrants send home inspires others to risk being smuggled into the United States.

A lot of them think of making rich by insurance claim. According to my intuition, this approach works well. Just as discussed above, these illegal immigrants have initially dim legal consciousness. In their eyes people only will laugh at and scorn the poor. It is a common opinion that insurance fraud is the easiest way to get money for "clever people". Other methods such as robbing the bank are too dangerous and hard to success. They think the cost of fraud is the lowest. It is possible to get a large sum of compensation only with a small amount of premium (small investment), or even no need to invest sometimes (notice: they go to America with high debts). They want to realize he possibility, the worst thing is their claim is failed but they won’t have to take the responsibility of such fraud. Once they succeed by chance, they will get rich overnight. Why not does it? Therefore they buy insurance one after another. Generally, they buy insurance in USA, then return to China and claim insurance when opportunity gets matured. Moreover, insurance is intentionally claimed one year after the fabricated "facts" are produced. In their opinion, it is hard to investigate for two countries are far away one from another. Nobody could remember such things for a long time. So they would probably succeed.

Indeed, in China, few defrauders who claim insurance have to take the legal punishments. Before, the crime of insurance fraud had been always punished with "crime of fraud". As a result, people who failed in frauds were only criticized and educated when their plot were disclosed. In some cases, it is difficult to punish the defrauder legally if he didn't succeed in cheating the insurer. Once the fraud have succeeded, it is hard for insurance company to get back money. The "crime of insurance fraud" was finally defined as an independent crime when the law was issued on June 30 1995. In spite of that, the formulation of law is not equal to its implementation. For example, cases of insurance frauds are common occurrences in every city, every province. However, it is rare that defrauder of insurance claim was put into jail. It doubtlessly helps the flourish of insurance fraud.

Another important reason lies in the tolerance of all social circles toward insurance fraud. As described above, local people "respect" the rich without considering about the money sources. Therefore, nobody is ready to provide the truth when insurance company undertakes the investigation, let alone report fraud to insurance companies or police. Moreover, they would tell ties for good of the defrauders. So insurance company is unable to get proof even if the case is surely a fraud and the defrauder succeed as a result. In fact, the insurance fraud is multiplying with the social tolerance and connivance.