Forbidden Workers

(Hardback)

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Description

Presenting an account of recent illegal Chinese immigration to the USA, this book is based on research into immigration patterns over the last two centuries, and on interviews with many workers, activists, Chinatown power-brokers, and "snakeheads" - smugglers who get people into the country illegally. The author also travelled to China to talk to families of immigrants. From the villages of Fuzhou province in mainland China to the restaurants and garment factories of New York City's and San Francisco's Chinatown, Peter Kwong traces immigrants' lives and identifies contradictions in US immigration and labour policies. Controlling illegal immigration, he argues, is not a matter of guarding borders or setting quotas, but a labour issue; and until labour laws are enforced and organized labour reaches out to this rapidly growing work-force, they will continue to work in conditions approaching modern slavery.

Reviews

"Forbidden Workers is destined to become a classic." The Wall Street Journal

"An honest look at an appalling situation." Kirkus Reviews

"A provocative and alarming book that should appeal to a wide audience." Library Journal

Author Bio

Peter Kwong is the author of several books, including Chinese America (with Duanka Micevic); Chinatown, N.Y.; and Forbidden Workers, all available from The New Press. He is Professor of Asian American Studies and Urban Affairs and Planning at Hunter College and a professor of sociology at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He lives in New York City.