Following the first forced repatriation on a plane, the issue also entered the television debate between Trump and Biden. The post-Covid economic crisis was the main motivation. Routes also to Italy via Serbia, with worrying contours of modern slavery.
Milan () – The phenomenon of illegal immigration of citizens of Chinese origin is taking on ever greater dimensions in various areas of the world. A few days ago, the Department of Homeland Security of the United States, through the words of its secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, announced the deportation of 116 illegal immigrants of Chinese nationality, in the first major deportation of 116 Chinese immigrants. forced repatriation operation in five years.
According to data published by the US Governmentup to 56,000 Chinese migrants are believed to have crossed the southwestern border with Mexico or the northern border with Canada between the fall of 2023 and the spring of 2024, some 3,000 more than the previous year.
The matter has become so important that it has even entered the debate The race is on track for the upcoming presidential election, with Republican candidate Donald Trump repeatedly accusing his Democratic opponent, current President Joe Biden, of being unable to stem the growing flow of illegal immigrants. The tycoon has even claimed that behind the massive presence of illegal Chinese citizens there is an intention to form an army and attack the United States. A thesis that does not seem to be confirmed at the moment and which has aroused the indignation of associations committed to the fight against anti-Asian racism.
Cynthia Choi, Co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, she told the Associated Press: “Trump’s dehumanizing rhetoric and blatant attacks on immigrant communities will only fuel hatred not just against Chinese immigrants, but against all Asian American citizens.” Gregg Orton, national director of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, says he fears a second wave of xenophobia, following the one that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although Beijing has been cooperating with the US government for several months to curb illegal immigration, the problem remains a source of concern. great tensions between the two countries: “China firmly opposes the United States using the issue of illegal immigration as a pretext to defame China,” a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington said a few weeks ago.
Behind the painful decision to arrive clandestinely in the United States, according to a Journalistic research conducted among newcomersthere is the desire to escape poverty and economic losses caused by the zero-Covid policy, as well as the threat of being prosecuted in a repressive society like China, which places many limits on personal freedoms.
The hope of a better life therefore prevails over the fear of having to face a long and exhausting journey, which for many is even fataland the awareness of having to have huge financial resources to support it, given that 10,000 dollars per person is sometimes not enough to cover the cost of airfare, accommodation, payments to local guides and bribes to police officers they meet along the way.
For Victor Shih, an expert on Chinese economic policy at the University of California-San Diego, this choice, which demonstrates the high level of desperation among migrants, is attributable to Beijing’s public policies: “China has a social safety net, but it is extremely small. If a health or employment catastrophe occurs, the government has very few resources to help.” According to Shih, emigration would also be “a kind of safety belt” for Beijing. And the possible “secondary repercussions”, such as some migrants becoming “politically active” abroad against the Beijing government, are also a minor problem, as they do not pose an internal threat.
Every migrant family has a difficult story behind it, like that of Wang Zhongwei, a 32-year-old from Wenzhou, told by the digital newspaper Nikkei Asia. Wang led a comfortable life with his wife and two young children. He owned a small company with 30 to 40 employees that exported women’s shirts to Europe, with an annual revenue of between $30,000 and $60,000. The economic crisis caused by the pandemic forced him to close the factory in 2021, and to support his family he began working as a driver for the motorcycle platform Didi Chuxing, like many other former entrepreneurs in his position. Although he had savings, he could not cope with the numerous debts: “I had suicidal thoughts every day,” he confessed, “I felt like my whole world was a cage and there was no hope.” Hence the decision to sell everything and leave to ensure a better future for his children on the other side of the ocean. Wang then learned about the route to follow by watching videos on the Internet of those who had already completed the journey, now largely censored by the Chinese government. After walking for days through the infamous Darien Gap, a region full of forests and fords between Colombia and Panama, he finally reached the border between Mexico and the United States, beginning his new life.
But the phenomenon of illegal immigration of Chinese citizens affects not only the United States, but also Europe. A few days ago, the results of the operation were announced Chinese Shuttlewhich led to the arrest of a group of criminals, all of Chinese origin, involved in a genuine human trafficking from China to Italy.
The investigation, carried out by the Trieste border police, was launched after routine checks last April along the border between Italy and Slovenia. According to sources, the migrants were leaving China in small groups to fly to countries close to Italy that do not require entry visas, such as Serbia.
Once they entered Italy via the Balkan route, they were taken to a sorting centre in Cazzago di Pianiga, a town in the province of Venice, where they were detained for a few days. To fool the border police, the migrants were transported in luxury carsThey were dressed in elegant clothes and carried only a small amount of luggage, like unexpected businessmen.
From Cazzago they reached their final destinations, including Venice, Milan, Prato and, abroad, France and Spain. At that time, the passports of those who remained in Italy were taken away and sent to China, thus turning the emigrants into “ghosts” destined to be exploited until they paid off the debts incurred by the journey, segregated within workshops or tailors’ shops.
Another gruesome detail concerns the discovery of hundreds of photographs of Chinese women, immortalised naked with passports in hand, other probable victims of what can be considered one of the routes of modern Chinese slavery in Europe.
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