> underworlds & borderlands brokering migration from southern

The income gap between rich and developing countries is still the most influential factor driving transnational migration. Although strict border controls and selection criteria have erected barriers, thousands of people who do not meet the requirements have reached their destinations, while even greater numbers would like to do so. As individual effort cannot ensure successful cross-border migration, its brokerage has become a profitable business.

Li Minghuan obtain permanent residency upon arriv- for her assistance, she received rewards snakeheads’: small groups (like Sister Most difficult, and thus most expen- al based on family ties or were granted of appreciation, but soon it became an Ping’s) who legally live abroad and use sive, is acquiring official immigra- y research focuses on Tingjiang, work permits and settled down; others open secret that ‘it takes money to buy large sums of money to ‘pave the way tion status, but if the applicant agrees Ma rural region along the south- went to where opportuni- every step of emigration’. In Tingjiang out’ of China and into the destination to go abroad as a contract worker to east coast of China known for decades ties were plentiful and wages much in the mid-1980s, the quoted price for country. They organise and expand tran- countries such as Israel or Kuwait, the as a source area of transnational migra- higher than in the PRC. News from the helping a person emigrate to the U.S. snational migration networks, take care charge will be lower. Third, it depends tion. I have tried to trace how the cur- first emigrants was so encouraging that was US$18,000. By the end of the of documents or facilities for clients, on the applicant’s status. If the appli- rent migration trend towards high more followed. Only a small percentage 1990s, the price had skyrocketed to and/or bribe officials in China and else- cant is more or less qualified to meet income states began, developed and of potential migrants, however, met the US$60,000-70,000. where. immigration requirements, the fee expanded. Undoubtedly, the migration selection criteria. Many others needed will be lower. If the applicant needs wave has been the result of a combina- help. When Ping was just starting out, a new The middle tier is comprised of insti- to be ‘trained’ to qualify, the price will tion of many interacting factors. Here law boosted her business. The imple- tutional brokers who often work for increase accordingly. I focus on migration brokerage, a key Helping people go abroad was first mentation of the Immigration Reform officially registered companies in the node in migration networks. motivated by affection, friendship or and Control Act enabled 2.7 million migration source area. Authorised to Since the late 1990s, the Chinese sympathy, but as demand for help grew, undocumented immigrants to obtain procure labour for export and assist par- authorities have declared human smug- Emergence of brokerage it became a business. Relatives of over- permanent residency status. Among ticipants in study abroad programmes gling illegal and local police have been Tingjiang is at the mouth of the Min seas Chinese could more easily obtain the lucky ones were hundreds of Sis- and internationally contracted projects, hunting down smugglers. After the River. For as long as anyone can remem- passports and entrance visas, so some ter Ping’s first customers. When this these companies often provide train- Dover tragedy in England, where 58 ber, young local men have been sailors. became brokers themselves, arranging news spread in Ping’s home region, she ing in languages, cooking, nursing, Chinese stowaways were found dead With the coming of modern shipping, transnational marriages and adoptions. became a local heroine. basic computer skills, job interviewing, in a truck, dozens of snakeheads were many youths were employed by foreign Though this trend began with real mar- document preparation and sometimes arrested and put in prison. Many of shipping companies, and when their riages and adoptions, false arrange- In the late 1980s Ping began renting how to apply for legal status after arriv- those arrested, however, were at the bot- ships called at some sailors ments soon appeared. As few could and buying freighters to smuggle larg- ing illegally. Clients pay for the training tom of the hierarchy; their direct contact jumped ship to try their luck ashore. master the complicated procedures, it er groups. According to online news and upon completion receive a certifi- with the victims meant they could be This was how people from Tingjiang became a business for experts. reports, groups organised by Ping often cate which can be used to prove that the identified. Big snakeheads such as Sis- began their lives in the in included hundreds of people, and her holders meet the immigration require- ter Ping, however, often live abroad and the first half of the 20th century. : illegal migrant to largest group, according to what I heard ments of the destination state. possess several passports. Their crimi- illegal broker during my fieldwork in Tingjiang, might nal activities cannot be stopped without Emigration was interrupted after the In June 2005, a series of reports in Chi- have included 500 people. In June 1993 The bottom tier of brokers are local transnational co-operation. establishment of the People’s Repub- nese language media in the U.S. attract- the world was shocked when 300 Chi- agents who act individually. They have lic of China and condemned as coun- ed the attention of Chinese immigrants nese on board the decrepit freighter connections with the middle tier but The view from Tingjiang ter-revolutionary during the Cultural and their relatives in mainland China. made an emergency may also have contact with a ‘big snake- On 16 March 2006, Ping was sentenced Revolution. In the mid-1970s, when The reports concerned a woman on landing during which 11 passengers head’ through, as in Sister Ping’s exam- to 35 years in prison, meaning this 57- the was near its trial in New York, Sister Ping, accused drowned. Although Ping did not own ple, that ’s fellow villagers. year old woman would spend the rest end, returned overseas Chinese and of having amassed US$40 million by the freighter, she had lent money to the Their task is to find potential custom- of her life in jail. Many Chinese immi- their families received permission to smuggling Chinese into the U.S. and of owner and had helped in the overall ers and introduce them to companies or grants in New York disagreed with the travel abroad if they could provide the involvement in the tragic death of doz- planning. After the tragedy, Ping was snakeheads. For each recruited migrant, judgement. The commonly held opin- required documents. Permission was ens of stowaways.1 one of the most wanted smugglers in the company or snakehead pays the ion was that Ping ‘is a good migration severely restricted but emigration had the United States. But she used a fake local agent a commission ranging from broker because she helped a lot of her become possible again; Tingjiang resi- Sister Ping (full name Zheng Cui passport and did not cease running her a few thousand to tens of thousands of co-villagers realise their dreams of dents with relatives in the U.S. seized Ping)2 was born in a peasant family in business until she was arrested at Hong renminbi. upward mobility.’ And, ‘Only in the eyes the opportunity. New regulations in the Tingjiang and received only a primary Kong airport in April 2000. of the American officials was what she reform era allowed returned migrants, school education. In 1974 she and her Hopeful migrants consider payment did criminal.’ The head of the Fujianese especially those who had family mem- husband emigrated to Hong Kong; in From snakehead to tail: the of the broker’s fee an investment. The association in New York said, ‘Sister bers abroad, to migrate once again. 1981 she settled in New York’s Chi- emigrant broker hierarchy actual amount depends first on antici- Ping enjoys the best reputation among natown as an undocumented worker. Unauthorised emigration brokers, pated income in the destination coun- dozens of snakeheads. She did offend As most applicants were unfamiliar with Nobody knows how she managed to get dubbed ‘snakeheads’ by the Chinese try; the brokerage fee for expediting the immigration law of America. But the necessary formalities, most applica- her green card within a year of her arriv- state media, comprise a three-tiered migration to the U.S. is always higher from a moral perspective she is not a tions were arranged by Chinese abroad. al. Ping started to help her relatives and hierarchy linking source and destina- than for Europe. Second, it depends criminal. She is innocent.’3 Some successful applicants were able to friends emigrate. At first, in exchange tion countries. At the top are the ‘big on the complexity of the services. None of the people I interviewed in

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Ping’s hometown regarded her as a often difficult to see the line between criminal, though some maintained a smuggler (snakehead) and a legal Beware of the data silence on the issue. One man told me agency dealing with the affairs of Ping gave him a special discount for going abroad. Sometimes, legal agen- channelling his son to the U.S. because cies channel their clients illegally The conclusion that smuggling is carried out by powerful criminal organisations is often based they were former classmates. ‘She is while undocumented brokers channel on government reports and official statements, whereas the conclusion that smuggling is always kind in responding to requests their clients legally. carried out through looser social networks is often based on field interviews. Is one right and of help’, he said. ‘My son could not get the other wrong? into the U.S. without her help. I could Destination states have strengthened not build this five-story house without controls on immigration, but while gov- Melvin Soudijn research presumably misses these organisations as my son’s money.’ When asked whether ernments desire talented people such they are deemed unapproachable, which makes one it was criminal that Ping had charged as entrepreneurs and professionals, Newspaper articles and government reports warn of wonder whether materials obtained through police so much, one interviewee in Ping’s the market demands cheap labourers. ‘snakeheads’ who organize the journey from China investigations do indeed throw a whole new light on hometown told me, ‘It is reasonable Illegal migrants often hold the low-pay- to the West. These journeys can take weeks or even the subject. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to ana- because she needed money to buy the ing ‘3D’ (difficult, dirty and dangerous) months, are sometimes dangerous and cost as lyse just the kind of data likely to contain information way for us. The money can be earned jobs that natives of high income states much as €30,000. It takes migrants years to repay on the more organised type of smuggler: Dutch court back so long as the person can get reject. Moreover, some high income this debt, often by working in exploitative conditions. files. into the US…. All companies charge states occasionally legalise employed These statements together paint a disturbing picture: money for labour export. Only those illegal immigrants to uphold their legal the smuggling of Chinese people is an evil business Court files show many similar findings as those of who received money but did not send rights, a possibility that tends to make where migrants fall prey to powerful criminal organi- field interviews: the involvement of women, the lack the payers to the destination state are such immigrants believe that their ille- sations. of central co-ordination, the importance of a good criminal.’ According to my research, gal status is only temporary. smuggling reputation and the lack of criminal diver- this is the consensus among Tingjiang On the other hand, interviews with smugglers often sity. But court files also provide new insights. In natives. Among Tingjiang residents, there is no show that they are not engaged in other types of the Dutch case, most noticeable is the presence of doubt that the government has made crime. Transport is often provided through family non-ethnic Chinese and the cohesion of smuggling The people of Tingjiang evaluate tran- great efforts to stop human smuggling. networks and social contacts. Migrants themselves groups. Field studies often miss the presence of non- snational migration brokerage from Severe penalties have been imposed, prove not to be hapless victims, but conscious users ethnic Chinese because, in general, they focus on the three perspectives: first, whether the especially on snakeheads. Posters and of services provided by smugglers. Following the Chinese community, ie, ethnic Chinese smugglers. broker delivered the clients to the desti- pamphlets publicise the government’s famous military theorist Clausewitz, human smug- The Dutch police investigation, however, was able nation efficiently; second, whether the decision to crack down on human gling seems nothing more than the continuation of to observe non-ethnic Chinese and smuggling group journey was safe; and third, whether the smuggling and urge villagers not to migration by other means. cohesion because police closely followed the actions broker charged a reasonable fee. Accord- partake in it. However, successful Chi- of several important organisers of Chinese smuggling ing to a local saying, it is more difficult nese returning from abroad, especially Contradictory findings about Chinese human smug- for eight months or more. Even in the highly unlikely to find the right broker than to borrow if they invest in or donate to their home gling can often be explained by looking at the kind event that a field researcher would come across this enough money to pay the brokerage fee. region, are met with great honour. of data used and the method of their collection. In type of smuggler, getting him to talk would likely Taking these grass-roots principles into In the eyes of the migrants and their general, there are two ways in which empirical data prove extremely difficult, if not impossible. account, it is understandable that Sister family members, ‘being channelled to on Chinese human smuggling is collected: through Ping received the highest praise from another country’ is not a criminal act, government sources (eg, court files) and field inter- However, the researcher should also be aware that her fellow villagers. According to Peter but a worthwhile undertaking chosen views with (illegal) migrants and smugglers. The two court files generally do not address simple forms of Kwong at Hunter College, focusing her by people who wish to make a fortune methods have their particular advantages and disad- illicit migration. This is to be expected, as smuggling business on smuggling Chinese makes abroad but lack the legal entitlement. As vantages. via purely migratory-based, as opposed to organised Sister Ping a very capable business long as migration is successful and the crime-based ties is situated more on the unorgan- woman. He added, however, that praise costs are acceptable, no one cares how Analyses of court files provide insights into the organ- ised end of the smuggling spectrum. Because certain from her compatriots cannot erase her the brokers deliver – what matters is the isational aspects of human smuggling. Statements ‘invisible thresholds’ of police practice come into play, criminal activities. end result. < by perpetrators, police observations, searches of the former are not easily investigated and brought persons or premises and conversations recorded on to court. For example, interviews with government The attractiveness of working abroad References tapped telephone lines provide information on how officials show that police investigations are more – regardless of its legality – is the - Chin Ko-lin. 1999. Smuggled Chinese: Clan- smugglers work together. Nevertheless, researchers likely to be carried out if more than one smuggler reward of high income for hard work. destine Immigration to the United States. need to take a number of limitations into account. is involved in more than one recent incident, while However, for the average person who Philadelphia: Temple University Press. First, there is the question of how representative the no sanctions were applied to those who fraudulently is not qualified to meet the entrance - Kwong, Peter. 1997. Forbidden Workers: subjects really are; the smarter smugglers may oper- became guarantors of visa applicants. Officials stated criteria of destination states, upgrad- Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American ate quite differently from those who get caught. Sec- in interviews that the cost of prosecuting such cases ing one’s economic status through Labor. New York: New Press. ond, police observations can be incomplete, thereby outweighs the benefits, as chances of conviction are emigration cannot occur without a - Li Minghuan. 2004. ‘Re-emergence of painting a skewed picture; criminal bosses take pre- slim and the punishments negligible. The result is broker’s ‘help’. If brokers are able to labour brokers in China today: the Xiamen cautionary measures, so relationship charts tend to that small-time smugglers (or so-called ‘mom and make emigration possible, they are example’. The Indian Society of Labour Eco- be inaccurate. Third, data are collected for specific pop’ smuggling operations) are essentially absent socially accepted, and if their busi- nomics 47-3. purposes, namely for investigation and criminal pros- from the court files. ness is successful, they will even be - Li Minghuan. 2005. Fieldwork Report of ecution, not for scientific research. A lot of data rel- admired. Brokers are indispensable Qiaoxiang. Xiamen: Xiamen Uni- evant to social science research is therefore absent, This makes it perfectly understandable why official for making transnational migration versity Press. such as suspects’ backgrounds and motives. government reports stress Chinese smuggling as a possible for average people. - Pieke, Frank N., Pal Nyiri, Mette Thuno and highly organised criminal activity and overlook other, Antonella Ceccagno. 2004. Transnational Information on human smuggling can also be simpler methods of illicit migration, whereupon field Illegal but licit Chinese: Fujianese Migrants in Europe. Stan- obtained through fieldwork, which entails interview- interviews stress the involvement of family networks The transnational migration industry ford: Stanford University Press. ing smuggled persons or, better yet, the smugglers and social contacts and overlook other, highly organ- in China has become institutional- - Skeldon, Ronald. 2000. Myths and reali- themselves. Zhang and Chin’s 2002 study, for exam- ised criminal activity. Still, court files leave questions ised. To participants, the contradiction ties of Chinese irregular migration. Geneva: ple, drew on interviews with 87 smugglers in America unanswered. Why do people go to certain countries? between official migration policies International Organisation for Migration. and China. The advantages of fieldwork are obvious: What is the role of family or kinship connections? and practical labour needs in destina- - Smith, Paul J., ed. 1997. Human Smug- researchers obtain first-hand information. If inter- Only fieldwork can fill these gaps. Therefore, it is not tion states transforms formally illegal gling: Chinese Migrant Trafficking and the viewers can work without interpreters, they benefit the case that the conclusion based on one source is transnational migration into accept- Challenge to America’s Immigration Tra- from direct contact with respondents; with a sensi- right and the conclusion based on the other is wrong. able (licit) practice. The whole proc- dition. Washington, D.C.: The Center for tive subject like human smuggling, this can remove Each comes to certain conclusions that the other by ess of brokerage exists in between Strategic and International Studies. at least one potential barrier. But there are disadvan- design cannot come to, let alone pursue. Neither do legal and illegal realms, both in China tages, too. As with court files, it is never clear how they necessarily contradict each other. In fact, court and the destination states; while none Li Minghuan representative willing interviewees really are, and files and field interviews can be used in a complemen- of these states openly support illegal School of Public Affairs, Xiamen University, smuggled persons usually have a limited view of tary fashion to gain a more complete understanding practices, their policies – wittingly or China smuggler’s efforts to get them across borders. of Chinese human smuggling. < not – have contributed to illegal activ- [email protected] ity. From a broker’s perspective, it is Information obtained through court files and field Melvin Soudijn is a researcher at the Netherlands Insti- interviews is rarely compared. Studies based on field- tute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement. His work generally do not use the conclusions of govern- research can be accessed at http://www.willanpublish- Notes ment reports, except to disown them. Sometimes ing.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9054546913. 1. The relevant reports can be found in various Chinese news websites. government reports acknowledge the role of indi- [email protected] For instance: http://www.fujianese.cn/news; http://www.chinapressusa.com/index.htm. viduals or small networks in smuggling illegal aliens 2. In some English news reports the name has been translated as Chen Chui Ping. into the country. These reports, however, focus on 3. Quoted from the relevant news report in Qiao Bao (China Press in USA), available online: more serious forms of smuggling, so-called organised http://www.chinapressusa.com/index.htm. smuggling, operations that are encountered (and duly combated) in large-scale police investigations. Field

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