The Plight of Immigrants

What surprised me while I was reading Kwon’s passage, Forbidden Workers, was that the voyage of the Golden Venture occurred relatively recently. When I think of immigrants being smuggled into the United States via long boat trips at sea amongst harsh conditions, I don’t think of it happening during the Clinton Administration, rather I envision these types of events in the 1800s or the early 1900s. This implies that the extreme measures and hardships that illegal immigrants go through to get here has not changed much, at least up until the 1990s.
Kwon makes an interesting comparison of illegal immigration to economics. He states that the issue of illegal immigration is no different than the national drug problem, and that the two are related through the concept of supply and demand. According to Kwon, all of the attempts by the government to stop illegal drug trafficking have been counterproductive, and have in fact made the business of illegal drug trafficking more profitable by increasing the demand for it thereby giving the cartels more control. He asserts that in an analogous manner, harsh immigration laws will only make illegal immigrants more vulnerable to smugglers and employers, which will further raise the price of smuggling and cause the smugglers to be even more brutal and evasive of government authority. This is an interesting take on illegal immigration policy, yet I don’t quite understand how this will give the smugglers more power. It is true that they will be able to demand more money to smuggle illegal aliens over, but it will also be harder and riskier, which logically would discourage people from attempting it. Although, one may argue that these immigrants are so desperate to come to America, that they are willing to take the risk.
Kwon also mentions how Chinese immigrants rely on ethnic networks to survive. Chinese employers use ethnicity to encourage worker loyalty. They create an image of a hostile society beyond the enclave, including other employers who are prejudiced, which would not be hard to believe given the prior reactions to Chinese immigration. This is part of the reason why many Chinese do not venture out beyond their enclave; because of the way they think others will view them. Due to this isolation, Chinese employers have the ability to exploit their workers by painting themselves as victims as well.
A theme that is evident in the reading is stereotypes, but in this case the Chinese use the stereotype to their advantage, which credits Asian culture for their economic success. This reminds of the Mexican immigrants, who portrayed themselves as worthy and hardworking immigrant in order to counter Anti- Immigrant sentiments. Another theme that is also prevalent in this reading that ties into last week’s reading is tension among races in multi-ethnic neighborhoods. I guess it is in the nature of people to frown upon new incoming immigrants, as it has been done throughout history.