Human Smuggling

Chinese Migrant Trafficking and the Challenge to America's Immigration Tradition

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4121885
AutoresMartin Brockerhoff, Paul J Smith (0000-0002-1012-1530)
Ano1998
Volume24
Fascículo1
Páginas181
Data de publicação1998-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPopulation and Development Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0098-7921 • E-ISSN: 1728-4457
EditoraJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2808144
OpenAlexW2077938442
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas22

Paul Smith, the editor of Human Smuggling, asserts that global organized crime and illegal immigration are two transnational issues that have reached the highest levels of policy concern in the United States, and that human smuggling is the main phenomenon wherein these two issues are encompassed. While Mexico and other countries of Latin America have received most attention with respect to these issues, the authors of this collection of essays make a strong case that research and policy intervention efforts related to migrant trafficking should give priority to China. In recent years, migrant smuggling from China has earned its agents billions of dollars annually, and has extended into 30 countries. According to Jack Goldstone, the author of one chapter, the prospect of rapid economic development in a country of 1.2 billion people could theoretically result in emigration of 15 million Chinese per year to the United States in the near future. While this ominous projection is shaky and is disputed by other authors in the book, it is sufficiently plausible to support increased attention to this topic. The chapters in this monograph examine three aspects of human smuggling: the miigratory push factors in China, the transit stage of smuggling routes, and the quality of life of smuggled immigrants in the United States. The first two issues are covered in depth while the third is only briefly discussed in a sensitive concluding chapter by Ko-lin Chin. There is general agreement by the five authors who describe originating forces that economic opportunities in the United States and economic disparities within China (rather than population pressure or political oppression) are driving massive illegal movements. The scale of migrant trafficking is likely to increase in the future as a result of uneven development in China, the skill of migrant entrepreneurs (particularly in Taiwan), and the high demand for low-wage labor in the United States. Kenneth Yates, a Canadian police detective, holds the Canadian Government responsible for much of the global problem, because of its reputation of welcoming almost everyone arriving at its ports of entry (p. 161). The aforementioned chapter by Chin is disturbing in describing how female migrants in so-called safe houses in New York City are routinely subjected to sexual assault. The quality of much of the data presented in this book is weak or questionable, but the writing is consistently provocative.M.B

Criminology · Economic growth · Economics · Human trafficking · Illegal immigrants · Immigration · Migrant workers · Political science · Sociology · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy