Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese media articles on immigration from New America Media

Wednesday Night: 04-05-2006

Hola Hermano Daniel y Gracias Hermana Felicia~ Forgive any interruption of your time. Sharing is caring. I appreciate these articles on undocumented Asian immigrants sent via the HR4437 List.

Read further below. Do you have the Links handy?

I am the Moderator for some progressive groups and can also share with others via Internet Power.

Feel free to either Join Immigrant-Rights-Agenda and/or Humane-Rights-Agenda Yahoo Groups, plus contribute to the De Todos Para Todos Blog. Plus, let me know where I can right an Asian Immigrant News Group. Let us keep in contact. We need to develop 'working' alliances together!

The news in these recent times has been focused more on the rights of immigrants but this often ignored 'shadow' issue has been going on for long decades. I was raised by Southside Park in Sacramento, which is home to the largest Asian community in Sacramento County.

Let us build up our links together and unite our great peoples in natural soidarity for our mutual interests as 'human beings': as ultimately one People upon one Mother Earth. There is no replacement for this key unity based upon a common humane rights agenda.

No Human Being Upon Mother Earth Is A Foreign Illegal Alien!

Peter S. Lopez ~aka Peta

Humane Liberation Party

Sacramento, California, USA

Email: sacranative@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Immigrant-Rights-Agenda/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-EARTH-NEWS/

http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/sacranative

Relaetd Blogs: Humane-Rights-Agenda Blog

http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/

De Todos Para Todos

http://detodos-paratodos.blogspot.com/

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Felicia Martinez wrote:

Hi Peter. As you can see, these articles were forwarded to me in the current format. The originator was Daniel Huang. E-mail him at dhuang@apalc.org to see if he has the links.

In solidarity,

--Felicia

"Peter S. Lopez de Aztlan" escribió:

Fecha: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 16:29:36 -0700 (PDT)
De: "Peter S. Lopez de Aztlan"
FW: API Immigration Reform articles from New America Media
A: Felicia Martinez
CC: "PETER S, LOPEZ"

Can you save me google time? These are important articles to post for ALL of us. Do you have the URL Website Source handy? If not I will search it out later. Gotta get ready for school. I am a Contributor to De Todos Para Todos Blog and others places. ~Venceremos, Peta

Felicia Martinez wrote:

FYI...

Felicia Martinez escribió:

De: "Felicia Martinez"
A:
Asunto: FW: API Immigration Reform articles from New America Media
Fecha: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 14:40:30 -0700
-----Original Message-----
From: Rupal Patel [mailto:rpatel@apalc.org]
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 2:30 PM
To: Alvaro Huerta; 'Cary Sanders'; Felicia Martinez; Hemi Kim; Isabel Alegria; Jeannette Zanipatin (E-mail); Joseph; Larisa Casillas; 'Martha Campos'; Reshma Shamasunder; Sonal Ambegaokar; Tanya Broder; Veronika Geronimo
Subject: API Immigration Reform articles from New America Media

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Huang [mailto:dhuang@apalc.org]
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 2:03 PM
To: Tammy Peng; Yunie Hong; Wendy Wang; Vivian Huang; Tawal Panyacosit; Sungpyo Ma; Su Yon Yi; Strela Cervas; Stacey Toda; Sonny Inthaxay; Shiu-Ming Cheer; Rupal Patel; Rhea Samson; Reshma Shamasunder; Ra Pok; Morna Ha; Monica Chang; Michael Sarmiento; Mary Blatz; Mary Anne Foo; Mark Yoshida; Mark Nakagawa; Marie Auyong; Marianne Lo; Liz Sunwoo; Lisa Kwon; Katrina Jaffe; Kasie Lee; Karin Wang; Joann Lee; Jay Valencia; Jason Lacsamana; Hamid Khan; Eunsook Lee; Don Han; Daniel Deng; Dae Yoon; Courtni Pugh; Clara Chiu; Cindy Cho; Cathy Dang; Betty Chia; Arnold Abelardo; Anh Phan; An Le; Dave Southern; Michael Lau; Daniel Huang
Subject: API articles from New America Media

Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese media articles on immigration from New America Media

Daniel Huang
Policy Advocate, Immigration & Citizenship Project
Asian Pacific American Legal Center
1145 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor Los Angeles, CA 90017
Tel: (213) 977-7500 Ext. 237 Fax: (213) 977-7595

Vietnamese Media Call to Action - Join the Movement

Nguoi Viet Daily News and New America Media, Commentary, Hao-Nhien Q. Vu, Mar 30, 2006

Editor's Note: A Vietnamese American says that many immigrants may indeed be breaking the law -- but a nation's laws must reflect an honest assessment of social realities and needs. When doing business in America so often depends on illegal immigrant labor, decency demands greater generosity toward the undocumented. Hao-Nhien Q. Vu is managing editor at Nguoi Viet Daily News in Westminster, Calif., the largest circulated Vietnamese daily in USA, where this article originally appeared. Translation by Andrew Lam.

WESTMINSTER, Calif.--A few Vietnamese Americans watched the March 25, 2006, massive rallies for immigrant rights in Los Angeles with curiosity. If you're an illegal immigrant, then you already violated a law, so why are you on the street protesting? The United States has a border, and it has the rights to build a wall along that border if it wants to.

Others watched the whole event with indifference. "Illegal immigrants" or "undocumented immigrants," either way, what does it have to do with Vietnamese in America?

In fact, illegal immigration shouldn't be unfamiliar to Vietnamese overseas. There are more than a million who migrated illegally from Vietnam.

When millions of Vietnamese escaped from Vietnam by boat during the Cold War, they violated many laws. They left without passports, and they entered other countries without visas.

Leaving Vietnam, many violated Vietnam's law. After all, the communist government did not allow its citizens to escape overseas. That is why there are tens of thousands of Vietnamese living overseas who spent time in jail in Vietnam before they finally managed to escape.

When Vietnamese boat people managed to get to neighboring countries -- Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, etc. -- they violated the laws of those countries. After all, none of these countries had an open door policy to Vietnamese refugees.

If those countries were generous, they would give Vietnamese the label "political refugees." They let the refugees live in a camp, and took money from the United Nation to feed them. More generous countries let the refugees leave the camp to go to work to make money, even when the refugee was technically a violator of their migration laws.

Then, when their generosities ran out, these countries started labeling those who came later as "economic refugees" or "illegal immigrants." Then they set up an interview process to decide whether or not a person is a legitimate political refugee.

So here's the real lesson: When the host countries like you, they give you a nice label, like "political refugee." When the host countries don't like you, they give you a bad one, like "illegal immigrant."

When you escape from a communist country to a country that is anti-communist, like a Vietnamese refugee in Thailand, Thailand calls you as a real refugee. But if the same refugee escaped to Cambodia, an ally of Vietnam, then he is considered an "illegal immigrant."

Human Rights Watch has monitored many incidents in which Montagnards, tribal peoples from Vietnam, escaped political oppression and migrated to Cambodia, where they were captured by Cambodian authorities, beaten and then repatriated to Vietnam, only to be imprisoned and then beaten some more. The reason? Cambodian government official Sao Sokha simply answered: "They are illegal immigrants."

So those who came up from Mexico, Central America, and South America through illegal means to the United States, haven't they violated American laws? If not legal, then aren't they "illegal immigrants?"

Maybe yes. Maybe no.

Let's look at another example in Vietnam, which is under dictatorship.

In Vietnam, whatever you need to do, you must first grease the machine. To build a house you have pay a bribe. To open a restaurant you have to pay a bribe. To open a store you have to pay a bribe.

Bribery becomes a culture, part of the business, and way of life.

So let's say that one day the police, instead taking a bribe, put the cuffs on you and take you in -- wouldn't that make you angry?

Technically, bribery is illegal. But when an entire society is awash in corruption, the arrest of a small fry who participates in a way of life that is largely accepted and condoned by everyone involved is something intolerable. It lacks generosity, honesty and decency on the part of the authorities.

So does the treatment "illegal immigrants" in the United States.

In the United States, many business sectors need "illegal immigrants" to work for them far under minimum wages. To build a house, you need "illegal immigrants." To open a restaurant, you need "illegal immigrants." To open a store, you need "illegal immigrants."

Employing "illegal immigrants" becomes a culture, part of business and a way of life.

So suddenly, in the new immigration bill these same people are considered felons, to be handcuffed for being "illegal immigrants." The law may appear appropriate, but it lacks generosity, honesty and decency.

The reason so many people marched in the streets is not because they believe this bill really aims at protecting the borders of the United States. Nor do they believe that the United States wants to deport the 11 million immigrants without papers in the country. What they believe is that the House of Representatives has created a bill that basically points the finger at them and yells, it's "those people" who are law breakers -- despite the fact that American society has, for several decades now, relied heavily on the labor resources of those migrant workers who have no papers.

People are not essentially protesting the legitimacy of this law, but they are protesting the dishonesty and indecency hidden behind it.

In a communist country, when a law that is petty and inhumane is passed, no one bothers to speak up. But when a country like the United States is doing the same, well, it's something quite unacceptable.

Immigration Debate Dominates Headlines in Chinese Media

World Journal and Sing Tao Daily, News Digest, Eugenia Chien, Mar 30, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO - Wary of anti-immigrant sentiments, the Chinese media has covered the immigration rallies extensively, from both their correspondents and the mainstream media.

The Chinese-language World Journal reported vivid accounts of the rallies in Los Angeles and in Houston on March 26 and the week-long hunger strike in San Francisco, where demonstrators protested against HR4437. The immigration rallies also dominated the front page of the Chinese-language newspaper Sing Tao Daily.

"Immigration reform is very important to our community," said Yu-Ru Chen, editor-in-chief of the World Journal. "It affects every person who lack documentation, or any one with relatives who don't have papers."

"No immigrant family can escape this debate," he said.

Former Federal Civil Rights Commissioner Yvonne Lee told the Sing Tao Daily that among the 10 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, about one million are from China. Lee said that the Chinese community could be the next target if anti-immigrant sentiments run high in the country.

Many undocumented Chinese immigrants come from Fujian province in China and are working in East Coast cities such as New York.

According to a March 29 report in the Chinese-language World Journal, many undocumented immigrants from China come from Fuzhou and Wenzhou, two large cities in the coastal Fujian province. Many come by sea in perilous voyages; some come by plane. In 1993, 300 immigrants from China were held in terrible conditions in a freighter called Golden Venture that led to the deaths of 10 immigrants who jumped into the ocean in an attempt to reach shore.

Undocumented immigrants from outside of Fujian province commonly enter the United States legally but overstay their visas. Compared to undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Chinese undocumented immigrants spend more money to get here, and because of the distance between China and the United States, have less of a chance of returning home.

Though the rallies predominately involved the Latino community, Chinese voices were also heard at the San Francisco hunger strike. Wayne Yang, a Chinese American high school teacher, was among the demonstrators in the San Francisco hunger strike. Weakened by days of hunger, Yang joined protesters in a wheelchair draped in a white banner that read, "We are People, Not Criminals" in Chinese, reports the Sing Tao Daily on March 28.

The Chinese media also has included explanation of the bills currently in Congress. In the Chinese media, there is a big need to explain what these bills are to the readers, said Jane Xiao, a reporter from the Sing Tao Daily who covered the hunger strike in San Francisco.

Before the hunger strike, she said, the Chinese media did not have as many stories on the immigration debate. But the coverage has increased in recent weeks.

"It is very important to cover this topic so that people know what is happening outside of our community," she said.

Many activists and Chinese community leaders have compared current anti-immigrant sentiments to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a government policy that put quotas on Chinese immigrants and is symbolic of the anti-Chinese climate at the time.

"Today's self-righteous congressmen who peddle anti-immigration bills name the same reasons that anti-Chinese lawmakers toted hundreds of years ago," said Joseph Leung, Deputy Chief Editor of the Sing Tao Daily, in a March 27 editorial.

"Instead of loathing immigrants, America should be proud that it attracts immigrants. The goal of immigration reform should be to create a set of workable and effective policy to accept immigrants," Leung wrote.

Fear -- the Core of Current Immigration Debate

Sing Tao Daily , Commentary, Joseph Leung, Mar 27, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO - New immigration bills proposed by Congress have incited large-scale protests across the nation. Different people have different opinions about the complex content of the bills, agreeing on some points but not others. Besides debating specifics of the bill, it is important to look at the motivation behind any bill and what it seeks to accomplish. The new immigration bills before us are actually not new at all - they are merely expressions of xenophobia.

The recent protests across the United States were attended by mainly Spanish-speaking communities, but their experiences mirror the Chinese community hundreds of years ago. At that time, American society was overwhelmingly anti-Chinese. Anti-Chinese policies were even passed in Congress in the name of immigration reform. The motivation and goals of today's immigration reform is not very different from what happened several hundred years ago to the Chinese community.

When Anti-Chinese bills passed at the time, its supporters said that Chinese used false documents or entered the United States illegally. Chinese workers were cheap labor, taking away jobs from local workers. Illegal Chinese immigrants contributed to high crime rates and couldn't speak English, the supporters of anti-Chinese bills said.

Today's self-righteous congressmen who peddle anti-immigration bills cite the same reasons that anti-Chinese lawmakers toted hundreds of years ago. Anti-Chinese bills were overthrown for political reasons after World War II, increasing the number of Chinese immigrants in the United States. But did the increase of Chinese immigrants here cause any harm?

What are anti-immigrant groups afraid of? Perhaps they are not really feeling fear - but hatred. They don't like seeing people with different cultures and different accents living among them. They also like to thoughtlessly blame society's problems on immigrants. A border wall won't solve their problems, neither will forcing immigrants to learn English. The problem is that they cannot accept the fact that American is a country that can absorb immigrants. After all, their ancestors were immigrants themselves.

Our society has not changed much - even in times of anti-Chinese sentiments, many Americans were willing to hire Chinese laborers because they were willing to work hard cheaply. To satisfy businesses, President George W. Bush has proposed a guest worker program for illegal immigrants. Though the proposal reflects reality in admitting that America needs an immigrant workforce, it is still unwilling to share the fruit of that labor with immigrants.

Instead of loathing immigrants, America should be proud that it attracts immigrants. The goal of immigration reform should be to create a set of workable and effective policy to accept immigrants. Immigrants come to America to look for a better life, not to commit crimes. The reality is that America needs more immigrants. In a situation of mutual dependence, if the United States is allowing immigrants to enter into the country at a faster rate, allowing market economy to adjust the number of immigrants in the country, what is there to fear? Must we make America into a country that no one wants to come to so we can finally feel safe?

Korean Americans: Crackdown Could Hurt Linked Communities

New America Media, News Feature, Aruna Lee, Mar 30, 2006

Editor's Note: Koreans were among the array of immigrant groups represented in historic immigrants' rights marches. Reform of immigration law would impact not just undocumented Latinos, but a web of inter-related immigrant communities.

SAN FRANCISCO--The Hispanic-led marches this past week are indeed a benchmark in cooperation among immigrant communities. Chinese, Russians, Vietnamese joined the march -- but this is not something new. For years, Hispanics have been working in non-Latino immigrant communities. In fact, a large percentage of Korean-owned businesses employ Latino workers, many of whom are undocumented.

Whether in Flushing Meadows, New York or Koreatown in Los Angeles, one often encounters Hispanics, employed by Korean-owned businesses, who speak near-perfect Korean. Likewise, Korean employers will often learn Spanish to communicate with their employees.

As anyone who has dined in a Chinese or Thai restaurant knows, these businesses also rely heavily on Latinos and other immigrant workers. Hispanic businesses also have Asians or blacks working for them.

The loss of undocumented workers, should the proposed legislation criminalizing illegal immigration go through, would affect businesses in communities throughout the United States.
Thus, the issue cannot be framed simply as one of Latino immigration versus U.S. interests.

Seemingly separate immigrant communities depend on each other for work, business and daily needs. The survival of one group hinges on the fate of immigrants as a whole.

This is seen clearly in the Korean community. "The debate over immigration has become very centered on Latinos, but the Sensenbrenner or McCain-Kennedy bill will also affect many Koreans in the United States," says Kyung Sook Lee, who joined Koreans in the protests in San Francisco.

"The majority of undocumented immigrants working in the Korean community are a great help to Korean businesses and to the overall economy of the Korean community," says Kang Choi, a consultant with the Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates in Los Angeles.

Korean media has intensified its coverage of the immigration reform debate as a result of growing concerns among Korean immigrants.

Korean media quoted Dae Joong Yoon, executive director of the Korean Resource Center in Los Angeles, who said the Korean community was irate at the Sensenbrenner bill, which calls for penalizing individuals caught hiring or aiding illegal immigrants.

Cha Joo Beom, education director at Young Korean American Service and Education Center in Washington, D.C., joined the street protests and told the Korea Times that he hopes these protests "help to create legal paths for employers to meet labor shortages, as well as enable undocumented immigrants to work and earn a path to citizenship."

"The Senate needs to come up with a broader, more comprehensive plan on immigration reform," Yooni Hong, an immigration attorney working in Los Angeles told the Korea Daily.

The Korea Daily also interviewed 25-five-year old factory worker Javier Lopez, who works in Koreatown in Los Angeles. "I'm not the criminal the politicians claim I am. I work hard and pay taxes, so it doesn't make sense that politicians describe me as a criminal," Lopez said.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Korea Times, a Korean American high school student who participated in last Sunday's rally said, "a lot of my friends are undocumented students, and I don't want to see them being deported."

Many Koreans relate to the plight of the undocumented. Says Eunice Kim, a translator in San Francisco who left Korea with her family several years ago, "Like many immigrants, Korean immigrants also left their own country to have a better life."

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