Eastern Michigan University DigitalCommons@EMU Master's Theses, and Doctoral Dissertations, and Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations Graduate Capstone Projects 2005 From the lucky land to the beautiful country: Illegal immigration of Fujianese to the United States Miao Lin Follow this and additional works at: http://commons.emich.edu/theses Part of the Criminology Commons Recommended Citation Lin, Miao, "From the lucky land to the beautiful country: Illegal immigration of Fujianese to the United States" (2005). Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations. 25. http://commons.emich.edu/theses/25 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses, and Doctoral Dissertations, and Graduate Capstone Projects at DigitalCommons@EMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@EMU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. FROM THE LUCKY LAND TO THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION OF FUJIANESE TO THE UNITED STATES by Miao Lin Thesis Submitted to the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology Eastern Michigan University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in Criminology Thesis Committee: Paul Leighton, PhD, Chair Liqun Cao, PhD Roger Kernsmith, PhD October 24, 2005 Ypsilanti, Michigan ABSTRACT It is puzzling why Fujianese are willing to pay seventy thousand dollars, which could entitle them to a comfortable life in China, to be smuggled to the United States. Despite the voluminous body of research, the life of Fujianese illegal immigrants has not been systematically explored. This study confirmed that people smuggling is a phenomenon that combines cultural, economic, and political factors.