Economic uncertainty and persecution: Illegal Chinese immigrants swarming US borders

Chinese nationals are crossing the southern border into the US in unprecedented numbers. Twice as many Chinese illegal immigrants had crossed the US border in just the first three months of 2023 as in all of 2022. Some 4,293 Chinese nationals were apprehended at the US border in the first quarter of this year. The figure for the entire of 2022 was 1,987, according to the data compiled by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency of the US Department of Homeland Security.

In fact, data shows that since February 2021, the number of illegal Chinese migrants crossing into the US has been rising steadily each month. According to the CBP data, Chinese are the fastest growing demographic among hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrive at the southwest border.

Most illegal Chinese migrants usually fly to Istanbul and then on to Ecuador, one of the few Latin American countries they can enter without visa. From there, they travel by bus to Necoclí in Colombia’s northern coast. This is the launchpad to cross the Darién Gap – a 110km treacherous, swampy route through forests, mountains and fast-running rivers that connects Central and South America.

Throughout this journey, migrants face risks of deadly animals and violent criminal groups, including the Gulf Clan, a paramilitary group and Colombia’s largest drug cartel. According to Panama-based NGO IOM, at least 207 migrants have been reported missing or dead on the route between 2014 and 2022, including 41 deaths in 2022 alone. To undertake this perilous journey, Chinese migrants reportedly spend around $5,000 to $7,000, if they are travelling on their own, or up to $35,000, if they take smugglers ’help. This is as much as three times what migrants from Central or South America generally pay. This points to the fact that it is not just the poor Chinese who are fleeing their country, but that many of these migrants come from working-class or middleclass backgrounds. They include small business owners, educators, financiers, farm owners, movie producers, etc.

“I think what we’re seeing now are people who are more middle class, who just feel that the opportunities are diminishing, and that the political situation has just become a lot riskier. So, they are finding any method by hook or by crook to get out of China,” Ian Johnson, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, has told a media outlet.

Why are Chinese fleeing

Several reasons can be attributed for this sudden exodus of the Chinese middle class and working class. Blaming the pandemic, Liang Zai, professor of sociology at SUNY Albany who studies Chinese migration, says, “The damage to the Chinese economy compared to four or five years ago is just so devastating for low-skilled workers.” Recently, the urban youth unemployment rate in China reached a record high of 20.4%, four times the national unemployment rate. This has left recent graduates with little to no options. Small businesses are also struggling to survive.

These developments contradict the domestic and international image that the world’s second largest economy wants to project. The concept of the “Chinese dream” encourages citizens to pursue personal and collective prosperity as well as national rejuvenation. Substantial economic and mental health burdens, however, mean the younger Chinese generation has become disillusioned with this vision.

Globally, China has invested trillions of dollars in its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, a move meant to showcase it as an alternative power to the US-led world order. But the hordes of disgruntled Chinese migrants at the US border present a starkly different picture. According to experts, Chinese are “voting with their feet” by seeking opportunities abroad. Besides, declining social and religious freedoms, crackdowns on LGBTQ groups, feminist movements, and minority religious communities are other leading factors behind the rise in emigration. Many Chinese immigrants are Christian and feel they cannot freely practise their religion at home. China’s constitution guarantees religious freedom, but only on paper. In recent years, Beijing has tightened restrictions on religions seen as a challenge to the authority of the ruling Communist party.

Xiaosan, a human rights activist from the Henan province, is an activist who left China after his last encounter with the Chinese federal officials. Xiaosan had participated in protests during Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution in 2014 and had continued to speak against the Chinese government’s atrocities. “Last year, they came to my neighbourhood posing as pandemic prevention officials. They shoved me into a car and threatened me and my family,” he told a media outlet. Soon, Xiaosan left with his son, a high school student. His wife and a nine-year-old son are still in China as it was “too dangerous” to bring everyone together.

One more reason, according to Professor Liang, is the tighter visa screening and lingering effects of travel restrictions between China and the US. The difficulty in obtaining US visas, coupled with the high refusal rates for visas among Chinese nationals, means more Chinese citizens are taking the illegal route. In 2021, the refusal rate for the most common US visitor visas for the Chinese reached a record 80% and more than 30% in 2022, according to the State Department data.

Online help

In the early April of 2022, when China’s zero Covid policy was at its peak, internet searches with the word “immigration” had already increased four-fold in China. Now, several other related hashtags have become common. For instance, Runxue (run philosophy), an online slang that means a desire to leave China.

Another term taking the internet by storm is zouxian or “walking the route”. It refers to the Darien Gap journey Chinese immigrants seeking asylum in the US undertake. Content related to the hashtag “The Route” on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, advises migrants on how to make the trek across Latin America to the US, also known online as “the Big Beautiful”. Other common sources of information include private groups and influencers. For instance, internet personality “Baozai”, who had lakhs of followers on Douyin, Xigua Video, YouTube and Twitter, would post videos about his migration to the US. Currently, he is posting under a new account name, giving information about his life in the US.

Similarly, an April Twitter post from an account called Lee Gaga claimed that smugglers were marking the location of US Border Patrol agents on maps and advising migrants on how to surrender to them. According to media outlets, after undertaking an arduous 37-day journey, Lee Gaga is now in New York City. Then there are Telegram groups, with names like “United States DIY” or “run away to the US”, which have thousands of members.