The chinky eyes invasion has begun. Prepare to fight!
Chinese are everywhere. Whether it’s north, east, west or south, you’ll catch a glimpse of a chinky-eyed and fair skinned Chinese. I find this situation irritating due to the fact that, even here in the Philippines, the Chinese populace slowly invades our country. However, in Dr. Peter Kwong’s China Lecture Series (Lecture 3: ‘Chinese are everywhere!’), I now view it the other way around.
CHINA IN THE PAST
Starvation and poverty are but two things that the Chinese people desperately tried to escape from in the 19th century China. These problems resulting from the political crisis in the land resulted to massive waves of Chinese emigration known as Chinese diaspora . A lot of Chinese merchants and laborers traveled abroad to work with hopes of appeasing their ‘poor’ state of living from the 18th century until mid-19th century. China at present, however, struggles to address these problems and the other dilemmas they face by entering the dimension of progress and modernization.
MODERNIZATION AND MIGRATION
China is considered as one of the fast-progressing countries of today but still a lot of Chinese people continue to migrate to other countries to work. Despite the impressive growth of China’s economy, it fails to provide sufficient jobs to the Chinese populace. An estimation of 62 million Chinese has emigrated, including professionals of vast ranges originating from elite families, throughout 150 countries around the world. Chinese immigrants even solved Romania’s labor shortages brought by the emigration of Romanians to Spain and Italy when communism fell. The number of Chinese emigrants doubles as years count.
The question now is this: Why, in the midst of China’s rapid modernization, are Chinese people desperate to escape and leave its boundaries? Though it may sound ironic, a country’s modernization marks the beginning of migration. A nation’s modernization leads to shortage of comfortable houses and appropriate jobs for its inhabitants, unemployment and underemployment were the trend, wage hasn’t improved. China’s development creates social instability. However, wanting to leave China was never synonymous to being able to do so. It would be impossible to leave without the skills, relatives and connections, and legal status. The result of this would most likely be an acquaintance with human smugglers.
SMUGGLING SOPHISTICATION
Human smuggling is a term referring to the illegal transportation (inadequate formal travel documents) of people across international borders to a specific destination country. It involves the procurement of illegal entry into a State which that person is not a national, with the objective of making profit. This human smuggling is not entirely a new phenomenon. For many years, people have left their homes in search of better lives elsewhere with the help of human smugglers.
Chinese people, even the Chinese communities overseas, refer to Chinese human smugglers as ‘snakeheads’. (People who illegally leave China are often called ‘human snakes’; thus, those who lead them across borders are called ‘snakeheads.’)
Smuggling, as Dr. Kwong describes it, is a sophisticated and organized global institution that haunts every nation. Desperate to leave the difficult life they’re living in China, many of the willing Chinese migrants undertake the hazardous travel to their desired destination with syndicates of human smugglers. These syndicates arrange everything for them but for a very large sum.
China has been a source of trafficked men, women and children who are engaged to forced labor. Greedy employers recruit Chinese people to work as very cheap laborers. Chinese men and women, lured into false promises of prosperity, are smuggled to America, Europe, Pacific Islands, Israel, Dubai, Argentina, Italy and other countries throughout the globe. Though many countries ought to fight the surge of illegal immigrants, its flow remains fluid as the demand for inexpensive labor continues to exceed demand. As long as there’s the demand for migrant labor, human smuggling will just continue to exist.
CHINESE GOVERNMENT
The help of the Chinese government in this problem is highly imperative. It is odious to find, however, that the Chinese government is largely silent in addressing this ominous exodus of its citizens when we know for a fact that some of them are maltreated. Despite of the sentiments of the Chinese overseas workers, the government is apathetic for the following reasons:
Human trafficking in China helps in solving their staggering unemployment rate. Unemployment in China looms despite the country’s continued growth. China’s unemployment rate depletes as the Chinese overseas leave their motherland to work across countries.
It eases the country’s overpopulation dilemma. Overpopulation has been glued to China over the years. This dramatic increase in China’s population began after World War II when, in 1949, Mao encouraged Chinese families to have as many children as possible. He thought that an increase in the population would bring money and will help the country in food production, building a better army, developing water control, and the establishment of communication systems. Many years went by and overpopulation only brought the opposite. Thus, China’s population diminishes as Chinese leave the country.
Chinese US dollar remittances help the country’s economy. China reaps an amount summing up to 20 billion US dollars remittances from the Chinese overseas workers every year. Now that is quite a sum.
With these benefits they receive, could we still wonder why the Chinese government remains silent?
‘INTSIK’ AND ‘NOYPI’
The situation of the Chinese people is no different to what the Filipinos are going through. Thousands of Filipinos desperately try to leave the pains of poverty here in the Philippines. Believing that the grass is greener outside the country, some Filipino workers engage with illegal recruiters out of desperation to work abroad. Then, news about Filipinos abused and exploited abroad plague our news.
Overseas employment was suggested as a ‘temporary’ solution for the increasing unemployment rate in the Philippines back in the year 1974 when working overseas was first approved by the Philippine government. However, what started as a short-term remedy for our problems of unemployment has acquired a life of its own.
Back in the 1990’s, the Filipinos’ desire to work abroad was fuelled more by the economic problems in the Philippines brought by the dual shock of the Asian financial crisis and the devastating effects the El Niño phenomenon. Together with Mexico, our country is now one of the two largest exporters of labor around the globe. Filipinos are now working in over 150 countries all over the world and remitting billions of dollars annually.
The idea of working abroad is like a drug to the Filipino labor force. We are addicted to it. Our TV news and newspapers are now bombarded with announcements of job opportunities abroad. With our economic conditions far from dreamy, is it any wonder why our labor force aspire to work on foreign lands, even if it means mingling with illegal recruiters and smugglers?
NOW WHAT?
With this problem at hand, what now? What should be performed to properly address this growing crisis? If we try to look back to everything that has been stated, both the Chinese and Filipinos’ poor state of living results to emigration, which sometimes leads to human smuggling. Therefore, alleviating poverty would resolve this dilemma. And how do we do such? By improving employment opportunities here in the country.
Improving the quality of employment opportunities is directly linked to economic growth and poverty reduction. Better employment opportunities provide people with new, and often improved, sources of income. When the employment rate expands, the benefits of growth will be widely shared. Take for instance the rapid and stable growth of Asian countries Indonesia and Vietnam that truly suggests that a greater employment focus leads to economic growth.
Boosting our employment rates includes resolving the challenges of inadequate infrastructure, lack of basic skills and trainings and the like. A development strategy that more fully employs a country’s human resources and raises the returns to labor becomes a powerful tool for reducing poverty, thus reducing the number of Filipino migrants who are most likely be victims of human smuggling.
However, the issue of poverty isn’t something that could be resolved within a snap. If working abroad would still be the best option for the Filipino worker, making it easier for them to process and complete travel documents and requirements will entirely make things a little better and easier for them. If it becomes easier to legally travel abroad, then there won’t be any reason for a Juan dela Cruz who aspires to work on foreign lands to mingle with illegal recruiters. In addition, passing laws for the benefit and protection of the Filipino workers while working in a foreign country would keep them from thinking of asking a human smuggler’s assistance. The bottom-line here is that a Filipino migrant must seek the government’s help, and not that of an illegal recruiter. The government should do its part.
Indeed, evidences that prove that the chinky eyes invasion has begun are clearly apparent. Also, as they slowly invade lands across nations, our own Filipino labor forces engage into a continuous outflow. Pointing out the causes of this invasion and outflow, human smugglers powered by poverty, we will be able to ease the cases of abused migrant workers.
Chinese are everywhere. Whether it’s north, east, west or south, you’ll catch a glimpse of a chinky-eyed and fair skinned Chinese. I find this situation irritating due to the fact that, even here in the Philippines, the Chinese populace slowly invades our country. However, in Dr. Peter Kwong’s China Lecture Series (Lecture 3: ‘Chinese are everywhere!’), I now view it the other way around.
CHINA IN THE PAST
Starvation and poverty are but two things that the Chinese people desperately tried to escape from in the 19th century China. These problems resulting from the political crisis in the land resulted to massive waves of Chinese emigration known as Chinese diaspora . A lot of Chinese merchants and laborers traveled abroad to work with hopes of appeasing their ‘poor’ state of living from the 18th century until mid-19th century. China at present, however, struggles to address these problems and the other dilemmas they face by entering the dimension of progress and modernization.
MODERNIZATION AND MIGRATION
China is considered as one of the fast-progressing countries of today but still a lot of Chinese people continue to migrate to other countries to work. Despite the impressive growth of China’s economy, it fails to provide sufficient jobs to the Chinese populace. An estimation of 62 million Chinese has emigrated, including professionals of vast ranges originating from elite families, throughout 150 countries around the world. Chinese immigrants even solved Romania’s labor shortages brought by the emigration of Romanians to Spain and Italy when communism fell. The number of Chinese emigrants doubles as years count.
The question now is this: Why, in the midst of China’s rapid modernization, are Chinese people desperate to escape and leave its boundaries? Though it may sound ironic, a country’s modernization marks the beginning of migration. A nation’s modernization leads to shortage of comfortable houses and appropriate jobs for its inhabitants, unemployment and underemployment were the trend, wage hasn’t improved. China’s development creates social instability. However, wanting to leave China was never synonymous to being able to do so. It would be impossible to leave without the skills, relatives and connections, and legal status. The result of this would most likely be an acquaintance with human smugglers.
SMUGGLING SOPHISTICATION
Human smuggling is a term referring to the illegal transportation (inadequate formal travel documents) of people across international borders to a specific destination country. It involves the procurement of illegal entry into a State which that person is not a national, with the objective of making profit. This human smuggling is not entirely a new phenomenon. For many years, people have left their homes in search of better lives elsewhere with the help of human smugglers.
Chinese people, even the Chinese communities overseas, refer to Chinese human smugglers as ‘snakeheads’. (People who illegally leave China are often called ‘human snakes’; thus, those who lead them across borders are called ‘snakeheads.’)
Smuggling, as Dr. Kwong describes it, is a sophisticated and organized global institution that haunts every nation. Desperate to leave the difficult life they’re living in China, many of the willing Chinese migrants undertake the hazardous travel to their desired destination with syndicates of human smugglers. These syndicates arrange everything for them but for a very large sum.
China has been a source of trafficked men, women and children who are engaged to forced labor. Greedy employers recruit Chinese people to work as very cheap laborers. Chinese men and women, lured into false promises of prosperity, are smuggled to America, Europe, Pacific Islands, Israel, Dubai, Argentina, Italy and other countries throughout the globe. Though many countries ought to fight the surge of illegal immigrants, its flow remains fluid as the demand for inexpensive labor continues to exceed demand. As long as there’s the demand for migrant labor, human smuggling will just continue to exist.
CHINESE GOVERNMENT
The help of the Chinese government in this problem is highly imperative. It is odious to find, however, that the Chinese government is largely silent in addressing this ominous exodus of its citizens when we know for a fact that some of them are maltreated. Despite of the sentiments of the Chinese overseas workers, the government is apathetic for the following reasons:
Human trafficking in China helps in solving their staggering unemployment rate. Unemployment in China looms despite the country’s continued growth. China’s unemployment rate depletes as the Chinese overseas leave their motherland to work across countries.
It eases the country’s overpopulation dilemma. Overpopulation has been glued to China over the years. This dramatic increase in China’s population began after World War II when, in 1949, Mao encouraged Chinese families to have as many children as possible. He thought that an increase in the population would bring money and will help the country in food production, building a better army, developing water control, and the establishment of communication systems. Many years went by and overpopulation only brought the opposite. Thus, China’s population diminishes as Chinese leave the country.
Chinese US dollar remittances help the country’s economy. China reaps an amount summing up to 20 billion US dollars remittances from the Chinese overseas workers every year. Now that is quite a sum.
With these benefits they receive, could we still wonder why the Chinese government remains silent?
‘INTSIK’ AND ‘NOYPI’
The situation of the Chinese people is no different to what the Filipinos are going through. Thousands of Filipinos desperately try to leave the pains of poverty here in the Philippines. Believing that the grass is greener outside the country, some Filipino workers engage with illegal recruiters out of desperation to work abroad. Then, news about Filipinos abused and exploited abroad plague our news.
Overseas employment was suggested as a ‘temporary’ solution for the increasing unemployment rate in the Philippines back in the year 1974 when working overseas was first approved by the Philippine government. However, what started as a short-term remedy for our problems of unemployment has acquired a life of its own.
Back in the 1990’s, the Filipinos’ desire to work abroad was fuelled more by the economic problems in the Philippines brought by the dual shock of the Asian financial crisis and the devastating effects the El Niño phenomenon. Together with Mexico, our country is now one of the two largest exporters of labor around the globe. Filipinos are now working in over 150 countries all over the world and remitting billions of dollars annually.
The idea of working abroad is like a drug to the Filipino labor force. We are addicted to it. Our TV news and newspapers are now bombarded with announcements of job opportunities abroad. With our economic conditions far from dreamy, is it any wonder why our labor force aspire to work on foreign lands, even if it means mingling with illegal recruiters and smugglers?
NOW WHAT?
With this problem at hand, what now? What should be performed to properly address this growing crisis? If we try to look back to everything that has been stated, both the Chinese and Filipinos’ poor state of living results to emigration, which sometimes leads to human smuggling. Therefore, alleviating poverty would resolve this dilemma. And how do we do such? By improving employment opportunities here in the country.
Improving the quality of employment opportunities is directly linked to economic growth and poverty reduction. Better employment opportunities provide people with new, and often improved, sources of income. When the employment rate expands, the benefits of growth will be widely shared. Take for instance the rapid and stable growth of Asian countries Indonesia and Vietnam that truly suggests that a greater employment focus leads to economic growth.
Boosting our employment rates includes resolving the challenges of inadequate infrastructure, lack of basic skills and trainings and the like. A development strategy that more fully employs a country’s human resources and raises the returns to labor becomes a powerful tool for reducing poverty, thus reducing the number of Filipino migrants who are most likely be victims of human smuggling.
However, the issue of poverty isn’t something that could be resolved within a snap. If working abroad would still be the best option for the Filipino worker, making it easier for them to process and complete travel documents and requirements will entirely make things a little better and easier for them. If it becomes easier to legally travel abroad, then there won’t be any reason for a Juan dela Cruz who aspires to work on foreign lands to mingle with illegal recruiters. In addition, passing laws for the benefit and protection of the Filipino workers while working in a foreign country would keep them from thinking of asking a human smuggler’s assistance. The bottom-line here is that a Filipino migrant must seek the government’s help, and not that of an illegal recruiter. The government should do its part.
Indeed, evidences that prove that the chinky eyes invasion has begun are clearly apparent. Also, as they slowly invade lands across nations, our own Filipino labor forces engage into a continuous outflow. Pointing out the causes of this invasion and outflow, human smugglers powered by poverty, we will be able to ease the cases of abused migrant workers.
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