Really?

I read the thing with my mouth open half the time. I don't know what the hell to make of that. On one hand, I have this perverse feeling of pride in America, I don''t know, still the land of opportunity or something? I can't even explain it, but it's there.

But on the other hand, them local service sector jobs we were planning on falling back on as any sort of skilled labor job continues to flee from our shores? Ain't gonna happen!

Man, we got nothing here, people. There is a point, my friends, at which capitalism kills. Our continued adherence to rules that no one else are playing by is killing us. But hey, at least we'll all have cheap color cell phones and LCD TV's, heh.

And some damn fine Chinese takeout.

I think people have hesitated to comment because no one wants to sound like a racist anti-immigrationist. I find it sad that this country doesn't really care about policing its borders, or exporting our labor and goods.

As for your point about the service sector jobs, the fallout will happen in the lower socioeconomic strata first. The vast majority of people won't care until it affects them, so until the fallout moves up the food chain, don't expect widespread concern.

The hesitance to comment may also stem from the lack of understanding or knowledge of such a topic.

I, unlike many people, know this practically inside and out. I will comment because the article does discuss in detail of my parent's birth origin, but it lacks one critical fact about why these people must work so hard. This generation of Fuzhou people are very unlike my father's generation (he came to the US in the 40's) and their work ethic is very different.

What's is missing from the original article is that a lot of illegal Fuzhou (we call them FJ's for short) people came to this country via human slave trade. They owe over $18K (back in 80's, but today's rate is about $60K+) to these "snakeheads" (that's how the slave traders are referred as) and many who can work to the bone holding multiple jobs may be able to pay off the debt. Those who don't suffer horrible consequences, death, forced prostitution, and the sort.

They're lured by the golden promise of wealth and fluffy white clouds and when they finally arrived in America's filthy doorstep, they're all alone. They have nothing but the backpack on their backs. Those who have relatives have some support, but generally speaking these people are on their own. And because this generation of FJ never experienced the great famine of Communism, their work ethic pale in comparison to those sojourners who came in the earlier part of the last century. They have great survival skills, maximize any or all benefits our government has to offer, and feel that acclimation isn't necessary.

Another reason why they have a strong entrepreneurial spirit stems from the idea that it's better to be your own boss and make meager wages instead of being someone else's peon. As many successes there are here, there are more failures than we know of or can document. Why? Most of these people evade taxes by reporting losses.

I know people who are professors in FJ universities who had the itch to come to the states. One prominent woman who taught Chinese literature at a comfortable salary and a beautiful flat in Fuzhou city (there are variations between those who reside in the city and rural areas of Fuzhou) was ambitious and wanted more out of her life. She was already in her late 40's and you could say, passed her prime. In NYC, she could not find any job suitable for her because it offered her menial wages and the job itself was unglamorous. She refused the job as a travel agent (most people don't get this lucky) or washing hair at a salon. Because of her constant refusals, now she has no choice but to slave in a filthy sweatshop for less. She can't return to China because she couldn't afford a plane ticket and she owes her slave traders thousands which must be paid up. There consequence to be met if the debt is not paid. Slave traders will threaten your supposed acquaintances and family members should they ever be discovered.

And the support her relatives gave her has been completely exhausted. She was asked to leave their homes and is now living in an apartment with 15 other FJ people crammed into it. They rent by the bed and by the month.

There's so much to be discussed...and I can go on forever about it.

My dad was a sailor and like what the author said, made a pit stop at NYC. He made an effort to learn English by reading and writing, paying his taxes working as a chef at some English pub in Midtown. My mom was an unglamourous seamstress working in horrid conditions for six days a week. However, she paid union fees to ensure we had adequate healthcare and a pension fund. My parents had the zeal of entrepreneurship, but they knew nothing about running their businesses and folded months later. All of over relatives legitimately came to the states by submitting application to the INS and cost my parents nothing.

My parents displayed such admirable stoicism for coming to this country and paying their dues. They never once winced at the pain of having to toil at these labor-intensive jobs and demanded that we master the language so we would not end up in their shoes. Because my mom couldn't adopt the language quickly enough, she simply resorted to working at a factory since language is not a critical factor. My dad fared much better because he later became a maitre 'd. English is key, he said. Unlike a majority of these FJ's today, there's a refusal to learn or acclimate. There is, however, a desire to take advantage of every opportunity because the government's offering it for 'free'. It's not like people pay taxes over in China to support others - here, my tax dollars are going to these FJ parents for having these babies in hospitals and the formulas to feed them.

opus512:

...But on the other hand, them local service sector jobs we were planning on falling back on as any sort of skilled labor job continues to flee from our shores? ...

Huh? Are you reading the same article as me? Where in this article did it say the service jobs are 'fleeing our shores'? Those restaurant jobs are staying right here in the US of A. They may be performed by chinese immigrants, but at least the jobs are staying here in the US. Where do you think those babies will go when they grow up? They'll all be in the US. You can accuse them of competing with native-born americans for jobs, but you can't accuse them of taking the jobs out of the US.

I didn't claim that the jobs were physically leaving the US, that's simply not possible. I said, if you reread the quote you linked, "...as any sort of skilled labor job continues to flee from our shores."

Are you claiming that skilled labor jobs are *not* fleeing our shores? My point was that as these skilled labor jobs continue to flee our shores, we, as in Americans, aren't going to have even crappy local service sector jobs to fall back on.

---------Other points---------------

When our skilled labor jobs first started leaving to Mexico, Japan, Canada and Taiwan in the 70's and 870's we at least had white collar IT and related support jobs to fall back on and expand. Thanks to the Internet that we gave to the world those jobs have fled as well. Hell, they're already fleeing the countries they originally fled to just five or ten years ago.

I have nothing against immigrants, we're *all* immigrants, except maybe 1/8th of me on my Mom's side, which is Native American. But there's a larger point that we are, really, all immigrants here, and we should share and celebrate that instead of using it to define and devide us, but that's another post.

Anyway, we'll never secure our borders because it would slow the flow of legal and illegal workers to do the jobs that don't pay enough for us to do, because that would raise prices and that, simply, is something that we as God fearing consumers will not allow.

We're in serious need of a serious correction, and that's coming down the pipe right now in the mortgage and credit problems we're having. The dollar crapping out and illegally tied to the yuan by China is going to continue to raise oil and gas prices which is going to continue to raise the price of everything all the while we're subsidizing corn for ethanol which will swell food prices because corn is used as filler in like everything and why grow anything but corn when the government is paying you for it?

Health care costs will continue to rise as employers continue to cut them out from under their employees which won't raise wages any, that would cut into increased profits and that's the whole point after all of cutting costs.

The new color of racism is green.

Sojourner's Kid:

What's is missing from the original article is that a lot of illegal Fuzhou (we call them FJ's for short) people came to this country via human slave trade. They owe over $18K (back in 80's, but today's rate is about $60K+) to these "snakeheads" (that's how the slave traders are referred as) and many who can work to the bone holding multiple jobs may be able to pay off the debt. Those who don't suffer horrible consequences, death, forced prostitution, and the sort.

Check out page 2 of the article ("A Lower Class of Snakehead"), which discusses the career of Cheng Chui Ping (aka Sister Ping), as well as human trafficking/smuggling from Fujian in general.

Oh geez, I am so sorry!

I had two browsers open, one to comment about this article and the other regarding the about "Little America". OY!! This teaches me a lesson not only I shouldn't have that many browsers open, but not to watch my ebay auctions at the same time!

Sorry about that folks. But truth be told, this is the first forum that even remotely discusses the topic. Having to explain all of this stuff can be daunting. Worst yet, many of us born in the US refuse to even admit that we're FJ because of the way things have changed for the last few years.

Linda

Well, nobody really reads past page one anyway...

Besides, you obviously know this stuff inside and out.

If it makes you feel any better, my roommate (who's from HK) talks up the Fujianese as "pioneers" in terms of being the ones to set up restaurants everywhere.

"I think people have hesitated to comment because no one wants to sound like a racist anti-immigrationist. I find it sad that this country doesn't really care about policing its borders, or exporting our labor and goods. "

Who conditioned us, created the conditions, that's its evil to oppose immigration, even though it is destroying us culturally and racially?

"As for your point about the service sector jobs, the fallout will happen in the lower socioeconomic strata first. The vast majority of people won't care until it affects them, so until the fallout moves up the food chain, don't expect widespread concern."

It already has been effecting the lower "strata". Why do you suppose the real cause of the LA Riots in '94? Rise and spread nationwide of violent gangs of unemployed males? The increasing civil unrest and anger over immigration? South Central LA was all industrial for example, which had all shut down & moved out of country, or were employing illegal aliens. I understand real income of skilled and unskilled labor is down by 14% since 1970, while the upper class incomes have grown by 290%, per Paul Krugman.

irvingchang:

i know my relatives came here to get abused by the white man.

Which one?

"You can accuse them of competing with native-born americans for jobs, but you can't accuse them of taking the jobs out of the US."

Darn right. The jobs taken by illegal immigrants, skilled and unskilled, by undercutting the wages of the native born, stay right here in the good old USA, along with the taxes paid by those jobs.

"The new color of racism is green."

As always, really. Like the Roman Republic, 90BC. Were fighting the same war that has been fought in the USA since it began, the civil war changed its face but not its essential character. It's the war between free and slave labor. Whethor actual slaves, immigrant wage slaves, sharecroppers, illegal aliens, all destroy free labor, who cannot compete, to the great profit of a very few.