Chinese Human Smuggling Problem

Human smuggling has always existed since first borders between countries have been established. Humanity is prone to migration, and when people are not allowed to immigrate, they find some other illegal ways to get to the planned location. That is where human smuggling comes into play. 
It is believed that people almost never feel completely comfortable in the place where they dwell. For most residents, native countries seem a place to leave and migrate to another, better developed country. Some people migrate to have a better lot out overseas, still some migrants seek better life in general. Thus, the number of International migrants all across the world estimated over one hundred million people in 1993-1994 (Kyle, 2001).
Unfortunately, there are only a few countries in the world, from which people do not emigrate generally. These countries are located in North America and Western Europe, namely the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and countries of the Western Europe. The rest of the world does not seem to satisfy residents’ needs fully; alas, people flee, legally or illegally, to other counties. For example, residents of Congo (central Africa) would like to leave to Egypt (northern Africa). However, for Egyptians, in turn, China looks rather a nice place to stay. And the Chinese would love to move to the United States of America.  Unfortunately, this example is reality and thousands of Chinese residents flee to the Unites States each year. For American Governmental organizations, as well as for other counties’ governments, this illegal migration has become a real problem. In this report, however, we will mostly discuss the affects of Illegal Chinese immigration into the United States.
Chinese human smuggling has become a well organized crime. Since the population inside the country exceeds one billion on a relatively small area (for comparison, Russia is two times larger in area comprising less than two hundred million residents), more and more people flee to other countries like Australia, Canada, United States, Japan, France, Holland, and other countries of Western Europe (Kwong, 2004). The Chinese pay very big money for the smuggling “service”, and usually it costs forty thousand American dollars or so to ship one person. Overall international charges for smuggling range between four to fourteen billion American dollars a year (Chaparro, 2001). Of these money, over three billion are reported from Chinese smuggling only (Kwong, 2004).  Thus Chinese smugglers make huge profits by shipping their compatriots to other countries, and especially to the United States. However, the real problem of Chinese smuggling does not consist in the illegal migration itself, nor it consists in any monetary or customs-related problems. The true problem of Chinese human smuggling consists in the cheap labor force that the Chinese offer, this way putting aside the true national labor force. Chinese human smuggling will remain as long as employers exhibit demand for cheap labor. 
For more than twenty years now Chinese illegal migration into the United States has been a regular activity. This smuggling boom begun just after People’s Republic of China and the United States proclaimed bilateral diplomatic relations (Chin, 1999). When legal volumes of migrants exceeded all possible limits, illegal migration organizations have started to develop to satisfy people’s demand. This group of Chinese smugglers were then called the “snakeheads,” and China residents who were leaving the country illegally were called the “human snakes” (Chin, 1999). Both inside China and outside of it, these two groups of people, namely the immigrant and the ones who ship them, were called this way, and those nicknames are used up till now. Generally, the snakeheads have been and now use three main methods to ship the Chinese to the United States. The first method is to somehow get to Mexico or Canada, and then cross the American border illegally. It estimates that during year two thousand, eight thousand illegal Chinese migrants crossed the border of the United States (anonymous, 2000). The main stream goes through regions of New England, namely New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Vermont. In addition, minorities tend to cross the border in the Northwest, through Washington and Idaho. From the South, there is even a greater flow. Twelve thousand illegal migrants cross the border annually through Texas and New Mexico. The first method is implemented mostly via land. The second widely used route is implemented via air; having prepared in advance fake documents to show to customs officials, the Chinese stop in the United States at the transit points. Human Snakes enter the United States from both east and west, arriving mostly in Oregon, California, and Virginia. About four thousand Chinese cross the border illegally from each coast by air annually (anonymous, 2000). The third method is the simplest, as well as the least used. About five thousand Chinese enter the United States via sea. People are smuggled by freighters and trawlers to Florida and California. Each year Californian population increases by three or so thousand, and Florida in turn accepts two thousand of illegally shipped Chinese each year.  
The main objective of snakeheads is evident, to make money. As the majority of people nowadays are, Chinese smugglers are extremely greedy, and they make billion of dollars each year shipping desperate compatriots to different countries of the world.  James Chaparro, director of anti-smuggling U.S. immigration and naturalization service, claims that the most widely mentioned number of total charges by snakeheads is seven billion dollars (Chaparro, 2001).  He also says that estimated number of illegal Chinese immigrants comprise over forty thousand people per year. Now taking into account that snakeheads charge each Chinese forty to sixty thousand dollars, it is not had to understand that snakeheads may very good money. Human smuggling has become a highly organized, well managed, and no more no less, prosperous business.  
Another activity snakeheads are involved into is violent stealing migrants from other snakeheads (Chaparro, 2001). Due to increasing rivalry, smuggling gangs have to compete for migrants, and sometimes they even engage guns. “We’re seeing escalation in violence in smuggling gangs,” says Chaparro. By stealing migrants from one another, snakeheads boost their profits because they tremendously increase their transporting changes. However, smugglers may not only attack other smugglers, but also immigration agents. “It’s not at all uncommon for U.S. agents along our borders to be shot at or assaulted with rocks and other weapons,” claims James Chaparro. 
Now, “who are these snakeheads?” one may ask, “and what is their background?” Members of National Institute of Justice have conducted research in order to get answers to such kind of questions. Hundred and twenty nine subjects have been interviewed. Turns out that people from various backgrounds turn to smuggling business. This diversity of occupations includes such as barbers, waiters, taxi drivers, car salespeople, fruit stand owners, seafood retailers, and even restaurant owners. Overall, there are nearly seventy occupations mentioned by subjects (Chin, 1999). All occupations were divided into thirteen categories, and here are the categories and percentages (Chin, 1999): Small business owners (29.4%), unemployed (27.9%), services (12.4%), full-time smugglers (6.2%), self-employed (6.2%), housewives (3.9%), farming and illicit business owners (both 3.1%), education and government (both 2.3%), employed in illicit business (1.6%), big business owners and employed by small business (both 0.8%). Such a variety of occupations means that there is not particular type of people involved in smuggling. Almost every snakehead appeared to have a high-school diploma. Most of the snakeheads are, or course men, namely about 83 percent according to the research. A little less than 80 percent of the asked snakeheads were thirty to fifty years of age, and about the same percent appeared to be married. So generally, it does not require any specific skills to become a snakehead; the only two things are needed, namely courage to enter the underworld and the necessary connections (Chin, 1999). So basically, whoever wants to become a snakehead is free to do so. “Whenever there are Chinese, there are snakeheads. Snakeheads are people who are willing to take risks for money,” said one of them during the study. It is interesting though, that most of the smugglers are drawn into this business by relatives and friends. And generally, smugglers stay in the business for no longer than six years; it is a short-term involvement usually. 
Organizational structure of snakeheads does not seem to have any hierarchical order, neither there is a “godfather” or a leader in smuggling groups. Most of the subjects of the study claimed that they were members of small groups that implemented all the major activities. In general those groups comprised two to ten people (Chin, 1999), and each member of the group has his or her particular tasks. Because the roles of each team member are clearly defined, there seems to be division of labor engaged. One of the subjects of the study claimed, “The division of labor is really clear and refined. Everyone involved is useful in his own way and does his own thing only. There is no leadership in any smuggling rings. Leadership will not emerge because the work involved is so specialized” (Chin, 1999). This way, the entire smuggling process comprises a compound sequence of separate actions, each of which should be implemented only after the preceding one is completed. However, all these actions possess the same end, which is to deliver the migrant to the United States and to collect the payment, of course.    
The researchers from department of justice learned that in most cases, people inside the smuggling organization have the following occupations: recruiters, coordinators, transporters, document vendors, corrupt public officials, guides, crew members, enforcers, and debt collectors (Chin, 1999). The recruiters take the beginning position; they simply find the people to smuggled. Highly possible that such people will become their friends or relatives. Coordinators are the so-called central figures, who control the entire smuggling process by contacting the other group members and arranging appropriate connections. With transporters everything is clear. Their task involves shipping migrants out of China and to deliver them to the United States. Document vendors are responsible for any documentation involved in the operations. Some of the documents may even be authentic, purchased by means of legal official channels, however most of them are fake. Corrupt public officials help migrants pass unnoticed through transit states as well as inside China and the Unites States. Guides simply move migrants when those are in a transit country, and also assist them in the Unites States. Crew members are sailors who work temporarily for snakeheads. Enforcers are also illegal migrants who are assigned to look after the rest and to resolve any possible frictions. Debt collectors are violent men who lock up debtors in cellars in the United States, plus some are located in China for synchronization.  
Through years, smuggling business have evolved in complex system with a variety of solutions and approaches. One of the most prominent steps toward development was the allowance for credit payment. In other words, groups of snakeheads permitted migrants to pay off the amount in up to a year, instead of asking for the whole amount at once (Kwong, 2004). Of course they set annual interest rate to benefit, and usually it was three percent. This innovation opened perspectives for those Chinese who could not pay the entire amount promptly, and as a result this innovation also brought higher sales rates and profits for smugglers. However, snakeheads were not groups of legal salespeople who could officially issue a promissory note. That is why some of the witty immigrants started to abuse this new policy by not paying the amount and disappearing into thin air once they are in the United States. Snakeheads failed to manage this new system intelligently. Consequently, having lost much money, groups of snakeheads came up with another innovation that had to reduce they bad debt expenses. They did not however renounce credit policy, instead they came up wit another rule, to violently force migrants, or their trustees, to pay. 
Keeping their debtors in horrible conditions and forcing them to inflict different kinds of perverted things to each other, snakeheads succeed in violent extortion. By violence and brutality smugglers instilled fear in their debtors, and made them pay off the “bill” fully with interest. Although snakeheads might intimidate and sometimes even terrorize their “customers” during the actual shipment, the most tremendous tortures expect debtors in the basements in the United States. While friends or relatives of the migrants transfer or transport the money, each day of delay means great pain and humiliation to the migrant. They are kept in specific basements of New York safe houses (Kwong, 2004). Specifically assigned teams contact and control the migrants’ trustees at home to force them to pay faster, and meanwhile another divisions, more cruel and violent ones, deal with confined migrant back in the United States. Those poor migrants may undergo such immoral tortures like eating, sleeping, and urinate in one and the same room together with tens of fellow inmates. In addition they are “starved, deprived of fresh air ad sunlight, and beaten regularly” (Kwong, 2004). Sometimes they were forced to hurt each other to “amuse” the extortionists. Most of the time those people are shackled, and some may be even handcuffed to beds. They were not allowed to speak with each other, and smugglers did their best to intimidate their victims so that even once thy are out, they would be afraid to speak aloud about their past affliction, let alone report to government authorities. As to those migrants who were unable to pay off the debt, smugglers incarcerated them without hesitation, and turned them into slaves. In 1992, the Brooklyn Police Robbery Squad encountered thirteen illegal migrants confined in a cellar of some building in the Hispanic district of the City Park. Some of those Chinese were kept in the cellar for more than a year, and all this time all of them were forced to work for free in some restaurants and laundries owned by the corresponding snakehead clan (Kwong, 2004). So ultimately, snakeheads succeeded in their credit payment arrangement, however they succeeded by the means of violence and brutality inflicted toward their own “clients.” 
The psychological impact of smugglers’ activities only covers the Chinese, who have been smuggled. Being smuggled in a “regular” way is not that pleasant experience at all, nonetheless the majority of the Chinese reckon it was worth it. Once they are in the United States, they would forget about the nuisances and setbacks of the journey. However, for another cluster of illegal migrants the journey turned into real horror, which is very difficult to forget. Being confined in a dirty basement, with bad air, and constant tortures was not worth moving to the United States, because neither professional American psychiatrist, nor American dream can quell their emotional trauma. 
In 1990’s the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act was expanded to cover untraditional crime clans, like smugglers. Although in general sentences for smuggling were not as rough as the ones for narcotics smuggling, still prominent smugglers could be sentenced to life-time confinement. The United States Congress had no other objective choice but to include in year 1996 human smuggling into the RICO Act (Chaparro, 2001). In addition, there were established specific police divisions that were primarily aimed at fighting and abolishing human and drug smuggling. This way we can see that even though the rates of Chinese human smuggling continue to grow, governmental organizations act in a reasonable and responsive way to oppose this illegal activity, which affects calamitously state’s inner life. Now, as illegal flows of immigrant increase, stiffer penalties are assigned to smuggling associated criminal activities, “We had a Houston (Texas) case where a person who was involving smuggling/hostage-taking was sentenced to twenty-seven years on prison,” reports Chaparro.
In conclusion, I would like to remind that the problem of Chinese human smuggling is not as simple as it may seem. In addition, I would like to say that the problem does not consist in the volumes of illegal migrating, which are anyway impossible to estimate fully, but rather it damages the labor market. Since many small firms demand cheap labor force, there will continue to be vacant positions for Chinese immigrants. Thus, there still will be demand on human smuggling, and therefore snakeheads will remain in business. But as long as snakeheads remain in business, there will be lament in Chinese families and torment in the United States. And in the United States of America, every person, no matter Chinese or American, would rather feel happiness and joy. 
Bibliography
1.	Graycar, Adam. (2000). Symposium of Human Smuggling. From Australian Institute of Criminology. Website: http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/ other/graycar_adam/2000-02-humansmuggling.html
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