Hailed by the Philadelphia Inquirer as "a must-read," Forbidden Workers tells for the first time the full story of recent Chinese immigration to this country. Widely praised from the Wall Street Journal to Asian Week , the book uses the Chinese experience to shed light on broader issues of immigration from countries around the world. Author Peter Kwong has interviewed countless immigrant workers, activists, Chinatown powerbrokers, and "snakeheads" (smugglers who bring immigrants to the United States) and has traveled to China to talk with families of immigrants. The result is an unprecedented look at an invisible community within American society―and at a billion-dollar industry whose commodity is workers who labor under conditions approaching modern slavery. During the Golden Adventure fiasco in 1993, a ship carrying illegal Chinese immigrants was intercepted in New York harbor, generating a fever of public attention on Chinese illegal immigration. Kwong (Asian American studies, Hunter Coll.) explores a dark side of American realities that create the conditions that encourage human smuggling and modern slavery. At the heart of the issue lies the ever-strong demand of American business for vulnerable, docile, and unprotected labor. As Kwong notes, the illegal immigrant problem must be viewed and understood in the context of the underlying supply-and-demand principle enshrined in traditional U.S. economics. Kwong carefully traces the origin of Chinese illegal immigration, the external causes, and the internal problems related to American labor laws and union issues. The result is a provocative and alarming book that should appeal to a wide audience. Recommended for all libraries.?Mark Meng, St. John's Univ. Lib., New York Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. An honest look at an appalling situation, exemplified by the tragedy of the illegal-alien-bearing ship the Golden Venture. At first Kwong's (Asian American Studies/Hunter Coll.; The New Chinatown, 1987) dates seem wrong: Surely he is describing the 19th-century slave trade, not present-day smuggling of illegal Chinese immigrants. But the setting is the present, and transporting people from the Chinese province of Fuzhou to America is as profitable for Chinese ``snakeheads'' today as was the earlier commerce in human beings conducted by Europeans. The voyagers get to pay off the debt incurred by family members to finance their horrific trip by laboring for years under inhumane conditions for less than minimum wage. How could this be happening? Kwong's central thesis is that illegal immigration must be understood as a labor issue. Aliens have always filled the demand for cheap labor in this country, and powerful economic forces exploiting this supply of labor are no less present today than in the past. From the produce fields of California to New York's sweatshops, employers depend on illegals not only to keep their labor costs down, but also as a key weapon in the fight against a strong labor movement. The established unions have been worse than useless in response to this tactic, with their institutionalized and isolated leadership able to think of nothing beyond ``Buy American'' campaigns. Legislation to curb immigration is popular but expensive and relatively ineffective, and employers have wielded political clout to insure that laws prohibiting the hiring of illegals are easy to violate and rarely enforced. Kwong leaves no doubt that the fundamental cause of the trade in illegal immigrants is not the greediness of the foreign snakeheads, but rather that of American capitalists who demand labor so cheap, only illegals can provide it. Ultimately, the only hope Kwong sees for improving this situation is a renewed and committed labor movement--a very dim hope indeed. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. " Forbidden Workers is destined to become a classic." ― The Wall Street Journal "An honest look at an appalling situation." ― Kirkus Reviews "A provocative and alarming book that should appeal to a wide audience." ― Library Journal Peter Kwong was the author of several books, including Chinese America (with Dušanka Mišcevic); Chinatown, N.Y. ; and Forbidden Workers , all published by The New Press. He was a distinguished professor of urban affairs and planning at Hunter College and a professor of sociology at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Used Book in Good Condition