Chinese Immigrant Asylum Fraud in New York
In the New York Times’ article “Asylum Fraud in Chinatown: An Industry of Lies“, brings light to the vast application for asylum by Chinese immigrants. That is, more Chinese immigrants apply for asylum in the United States, more specifically in New York, than any other group of immigrants. In fact, more than 62 percent of asylum cases presented in New York have come been filed by Chinese immigrants in 2012 alone. It must be noted, however, that the asylum application have become a problem due to the fact that in many cases Chinese immigrants present fake stories of persecution in order attain asylum.
A CUNY professor, Peter Kwong, has said that it is openly known within the Chinese community that the majority asylum applicants falsify documents and create fictitious stories in order to make their case seem more factual. That is, it has become so common to fabricate stories and counterfeit documents that this phenomenon is even called an asylum industry. For example, in 2010 federal officials, who were conducting an extensive investigation on immigration fraud, secretly recorded a conversation between a Chinese immigrant and her lawyer. The recording revealed that the lawyer urged his client to lie about being forced to abort in order to get asylum. From these findings a total of 30 people, including the lawyer, paralegals, interpreters and a church employee were accused of coaching Chinese asylum applicants on how to accurately lie about their reason for applying. This particular group of “coaches” trained the applicants in the basic doctrines of Christianity in order for the applicants to use religious persecution as an excuse.
A possible explanation for this fast-growing industry is that Chinese immigrants are increasingly trying to attain permanent immigration status in New York. This is due to the fact that immigrants who receive asylum are immediately allowed to work and within a year are able to apply for a greencard.
I think that often when there are few legal pathways to immigration, it creates opportunity for fraud and exploitation – both of the system and of the immigrants. The asylum industry is there because immigrants pay lots of money to get this help.
The fact that 62% of asylum cases in New York are filed by Chinese is not that surprising. Chinese are the second largest country of origin among immigrants, and China is a huge country. More importantly, China is America’s political and economic rival. For political reasons, US policy has been to recognize asylum claims by the Chinese – particularly over the reproductive rights and persecution of Christianity – in order to embarrass its rival.
Why are religious asylum claims more recognized?
For one, religious Christians are a strong lobby that influence the US government to help oppressed Christians in places like China. And lack of religious freedom is something that is pointed to as a big difference between China and the US. So by giving asylum to persecuted Chinese Christians, US can embarrass China.
Great blog post, by the way. See if you can figure out how to insert a link without showing the whole address.
Interestingly, Human Rights Watch published a report about the difficulties of immigrants who came seeking asylum (a nationwide report that isn’t specifically about Chinese asylum-seekers in NY). Apparently, asylum-seekers who come to the U.S. can have an extremely difficult time because of the restrictions on working and collecting social security. We have talked in class about how Chinese immigrants are given greater priority since China is an economic-political rival, but it is still striking that on the whole 92% of asylum-seekers are left for some period of time (for many months, if not years) unable both to work and to collect government assistance. There is still some debate in the federal government as to whether they should remove this barrier to progress, as we are the only developed country who imposes both of these restrictions on asylum seekers.
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/11/12/us-catch-22-asylum-seekers
Marielle, those are some excellent points. I didn’t know that the US was unique in imposing these restrictions. I did some research on immigrants to Ireland about ten years ago, and I remember talking to asylum seekers who were in the same situation – had to work illegally. And they were required to live in a dormitory for asylum seekers that sounded like it was like a jail. But I guess the provision of this dormitory would count as government assistance. Human Rights Watch is generally a good source of information on issues of deportation and immigrant detention. They are able to do some excellent research.
Should it bother us that the stories of these asylum-seekers are fabricated? I think these people should be able to come to our country to get a job regardless of their conditions in their home country.
This seems to be part of a bigger picture that the life of an immigrant is never easy and always covered in red tape. I wonder if the the study from the Human Rights Watch mentioned by Marielle would have come to a different conclusion if they only studied NYC. That is, we know of NYC to be a considered a sanctuary for immigrants, would these immigrants than have an easier time getting government benefits and finding a job? While I’m sure the waiting periods mentioned in the Catch-22 article still apply to NYC asylum-seekers, I wonder if their ability to find work is actually hindered.
I see what you’re saying Ilizar, that even if people are not at a point where they really do need to flee their country for fear of persecution, they should still be allowed to come here and make a living. While someone looking to come to New York, or anywhere in America, may not be doing so because of danger in their home country, they may have plenty of other good reasons to be coming here. However, falsely filing for asylum is a crime. Instead of being okay with such crime, there should be reconsiderations for what is considered a valid reason to come to America, and there are, but should there be more? Also, the Chinese may be filing asylum not just because they fear that they won’t be able to become permanent residents otherwise, but because they simply want to become one faster, as Sara said. In this case, there may not be as much pity available for these people, as they are possibly just being impatient. Unless of course they yet again have a good reason to need to come quickly. This just shows that there may need to be more considerations for pathways to immigration and that each request might have to be looked at a little more closely.