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The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S.
Department of Justice and prepared the following final report:
Document Title: Characteristics of Chinese Human Smugglers: A
Cross-National Study, Final Report
Author(s): Sheldon Zhang ; Ko-lin Chin
Document No.: 200607
Date Received: 06/24/2003
Award Number: 99-IJ-CX-0028
This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice.
To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally-
funded grant final report available electronically in addition to
traditional paper copies.
Opinions or points of view expressed are those
of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect
the official position or policies of the U.S.
Department of Justice.
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THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CH INESE HUMAN SMUG GLERS
---A CROSS-NAT IONAL STUDY
to the
United States Department o f Justice
Office of Justice Programs
National Institute of Justice
Grant
1999-IJ-CX-0028
Principal Investigator: Dr. Sheldon Zhang
San Diego S tate University
Department of Sociology
5500 Campanile D rive
San Diego, CA 92 182-4423
Tel: (619) 594-5449; Fax: (619) 594-1325
Email: [email protected]
Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Ko-lin C hin
School of Criminal Justice
Rutgers University
Newark, NJ 07650
Tel: (973) 353-1488 (Office)
Email: kochinfGl andronieda.rutgers.edu
FAX : (973) 353-5896 ( F a )
fficial position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
ew expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
his report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of
his document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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FOREWORD
This study was conducted under Grant No. 1999-IJ-CX-0028 awarded by the N ational
Institute of Justice, Of ice of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice.
Points of views in this document are those
of
the authors and do not necessarily represent
the o fficial position or policies of the United States government.
SUGGESTED CITATION
Zhang, Sheldon
X.
and Ko-lin Chin
(2002). The Social Organization
o
Chinese Human
Smuggling-A Cross National
Study
San
Diego, CA: San Diego State University.
pproved
By:
..
11
fficial position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
ew expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
his report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of
his document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We w ould like to thank the following individuals for their assistance in this study: Jorge
Guzman, Darwin Tchin, Scott Morris, Jim Hays, and Roger Thom pson of the U.S.
Imm igration and Naturalization Service.
In
particular, we w ant to thank all of our subjects who were brave enough to trust us with
their most confidential information, and ou r fellow researchers in China whose familiarity
with local cultural nuances greatly enhanced
our
understanding o f the social context
of
illegal hum an migration. Without these individuals for whom w e are not at liberty to
reveal their identities, this study would not have been possible.
We also want to thank the three anonymous reviewers from NIJ who provided
constructive comm ents and suggestions to an earlier draft of this report, which w e have
incorporated wherever possible in this revision.
...
fficial position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
ew expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
his report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of
his document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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ABSTRACT
This study attempted to uncover the basic inner workings of Chinese human smugg ling
organizations and their operations. Through field observations and face-to-face
interviews in both the
U.S.
and China, we foun d that most hum an smugg lers (also
known
as snakeh eads) were otherwise ordinary citizens whose social networks provided the
necessary connections and resources that led
to
a profitable trade in shipping human
cargoes around the w orld. These individuals came from diverse backgrounds and formed
temporary business alliances. Their organizations can be best described as ad hoc task
forces. We did not find any godfather type of snakeh eads who dominated an entire group
of smug glers or com mand a g roup of subordinates; but we did find that most smugg ling
activities were highly specialized and controlled by individuals who would only deal with
one an other through one-on-one contacts. Policy im plications and limitations of the study
design are also discussed. This report
is
intended for law enforcem ent officials and policy
makers who deal with migration and transnational hum an smuggling issues.
fficial position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
ew expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
his report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of
his document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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INTRODUCTION
Organized C hinese human smuggling into the United S tates has been going on for more
than two decades, although it rarely catches public attention except for a few daring
operations that ended in disasters, such as the death of 58 illegal Chinese imm igrants
inside a refrigerator truck while attempting to cro ss into England in Dover (W oods ,
2000). After the United S tates established diplom atic relations with the People’s Republic
of China in 1978, Chinese nationals qu ickly overwhelmed the legal channels to
immigrate to the United States. Consequently, illegal channels have been developed by
hum an smugglers to meet the demand (Chin, 1999). Hum an smugglers are called
“snakeheads”both in China and am ong overseas Chinese communities.
There are three main sm uggling methods, often used in com binations, to transport
Chinese nationals into the U.S. One strategy is to travel to Mexico or Canada “by som e
means” and then illegally cross the borders into the United States (Asimov and Burdman ,
1993). A second strategy is to fly into the United States through transit points outside
China. These by-air illegal immigrants m ust have fraudulent doc um ents that enable them
to enter the country (Lorch, 1992 ). As a third strategy,
a
large numb er of Chinese were
smugg led into the U.
S.
in fishing trawlers o r freighters (Myers, 1992; Zhang and
Gaylord, 1996).
Current Knowledge about Chinese Human Sm uggling
Chinese human smugglers have been ab le to develop extensive global networks and
transport Chinese nationals to variou s parts
of
the world w ith the U.S. as the most sought-
after destination (Zhang and Gaylord, 1996 ; Zhang, 1997). Taiw an, Hong Kon g, Macao,
2
fficial position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
ew expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
his report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of
his document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Japan, Australia, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Mexico, Panama, and Canada have
long been plagued by the presence of large numb ers of undocum ented Chinese (Boyd,
1992; Dubro, 1992; Eage r, 1992; Lee, 1992; Tam , 199 2; Stalk, 199 3; Gross 1996;
Marquis and Ga min, 1999). Am erican officials claimed that the Chinese smuggling
groups have connections in
5
1 countries that are either
part
of the transportation w eb or
are involved in manufacturing fraudulent travel documents, or both (Freedman, 199 1;
My dans, 1 992). Acco rding to an Am erican official, “at any given time, thirty thousand
Chinese are stashed away in safe houses around the world, waiting for entry” (Kinkead,
1992: 160).
Around the globe, many countries are reported being used as intermediate stops
on the way to the United States, among which C anada and M exico are ranked atop for
obvious reasons. There have also been reports of Chinese nationals staging in Russia for
several years, the true extent of w hich is not know n but figures as high a s “hundreds of
thousands” have been reported (Thompson, 2000).’ Surinam is another major way
station; and the Surinamese governm ent reportedly issues tens of thousands of “work
visas” to C hinese nationals
