Immigration to the U.S.

[Randy W]

.

. . . from a Chinese point of view, in the Global times

 

"The author is a New York-based journalist. rong_xiaoqing"

 

New immigrants more pirates than dreamers

 

Few Chinese would like to risk their lives for a taste of American life.

There are still illegal immigrants coming in from China, but boats are mainly out of the picture.

Nowadays they come by air legally and overstay their visas.

Instead, another group of immigrants from China are more often in the headlines these days, those who came to this country with their pockets stuffed with money, and who get green cards relatively quick because of their wealth.

Last year, the US granted 7,641 investment visas to foreigner who bought $500,000 to $1 million to invest in US business, and 80 percent of these went to Chinese mainlanders.

 

. . .

 

The Chinese immigrants who came to the US through smuggling during the late 1980s and the 1990s were mainly from the rural areas of the coastal Fujian province. Most of them missed out on the early tides of economic development in China, and were struggling to make ends meet.

Once they arrived in the US, they worked like dogs in restaurants or garment factories, and sent money back to their families. The annual total that Fujianese immigrants in the US sent back often exceeded $1 billion in recent years, an important support to their towns and villages in China.

They also won't hesitate to help whenever their home country is in need. After the recent Ya'an earthquake, the East Coast Fukien [Fujian] American Association in New York's Chinatown called for relief donations from its members and got $22,000 within half an hour. And the better-off ones also help to build schools, roads and bridges in their home villages.

This should make the rich new immigrants sweat in shame.

They are the ones who ride the tides of economic development, and accumulate substantial personal wealth on the way. They leave the homeland not to make a living, but to run away from the murky rules and laws, poisonous food and environmental pollution, which, they worry, are affecting their well-being.

Sounds reasonable, right? But if you ask them how they got their first bucket of gold, you'll find many either have benefited from the plagues they disdain or are responsible for them.

Instead of staying to fix the problems, they decided to take their money and leave. This sounds more like what the colonists would do to their conquered land than anyone would do to their home land.

 

 

[luoboluobo]

I cant say really how valid it is to call the Global Times a Chinese point of view. It is a particular Chinese view but I find their articles unlikely to be representative of the majority of Chinese opinion. Just my perspective.

[Randy W]

I cant say really how valid it is to call the Global Times a Chinese point of view. It is a particular Chinese view but I find their articles unlikely to be representative of the majority of Chinese opinion. Just my perspective.

 

 

The Global Times is a Communist Party publication, an offshoot of the People's Daily. But yes, it is ONE Chinese' point of view, a New York-based journalist