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31: Chinese Whispers by Hsiao-Hung Pai
Jul. 13th, 2010 08:42 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
puritybrown.livejournal.com31: Chinese Whispers: the true story behind Britain's hidden army of labour by Hsiao-Hung Pai
This is the kind of book to make you both sad and angry: sad at the terrible suffering it depicts, and angry that the suffering is allowed to continue, even tacitly encouraged, by the people who are in a position to stop it. Hsiao-Hung Pai came to live in Britain in the early 1990s. Although she was in the country legally, she was aware of the large number of undocumented Chinese workers living in Britain illegally and working in dangerous conditions for meagre pay; but it was only after the discovery of 58 dead Chinese immigrants in a shipping container in Dover that this awareness became acute enough to make her want to investigate further. Over a number of years, she built up contacts, gathered stories, and several times even went undercover with the low-paid undocumented workers, living and working alongside them and witnessing at first-hand the apalling conditions they are forced to endure.
And they are apalling: fourteen-hour days, weeks without a single day off, minimal pay that's withheld at no notice and with no explanation; and the work itself is hard, physically stressful, unhealthy, and dangerous. The people whose stories Pai tells here worked in electronics factories (breathing in fumes that induce asthma and high blood pressure), farms (picking vegetables on cold days with no tools and no protective gear), restaurants (on their feet for fourteen hours, paid a "basic wage" of £5 a day plus tips), brothels (constantly at risk of attacks from clients, and kept indoors in a state of virtual imprisonment), and private homes (as housekeepers and nannies, subject to the whims of employers who know all too well that they can't risk calling the police).
It's depressing reading, especially when I consider how entrenched the anti-immigration stance is in the political discourse, not just in the UK but all across Europe. Chinese and other undocumented workers play a vital role in keeping the economies of Europe going, working incredibly hard for very little, and yet every time the exploitation of their vulnerability creates a large-scale tragedy, the media story is not "how are we allowing these people to live like this?" but "why are they here?" And the government response is not "how can we make sure that people in this position have their rights defended?" but "how can we make sure that people like this aren't allowed in the country at all?" It makes me so angry, and the stories in this book just intensifies that; the individuality and humanity of these people (who have made great sacrifices to come to Britain and only want the opportunity to work and earn a little money to send home) is so clear, so obvious, and so totally ignored by the police and the government.
Shocking, horrifying, eye-opening, enraging -- essential reading.
(tags: chinese, british-chinese, immigration)
This is the kind of book to make you both sad and angry: sad at the terrible suffering it depicts, and angry that the suffering is allowed to continue, even tacitly encouraged, by the people who are in a position to stop it. Hsiao-Hung Pai came to live in Britain in the early 1990s. Although she was in the country legally, she was aware of the large number of undocumented Chinese workers living in Britain illegally and working in dangerous conditions for meagre pay; but it was only after the discovery of 58 dead Chinese immigrants in a shipping container in Dover that this awareness became acute enough to make her want to investigate further. Over a number of years, she built up contacts, gathered stories, and several times even went undercover with the low-paid undocumented workers, living and working alongside them and witnessing at first-hand the apalling conditions they are forced to endure.
And they are apalling: fourteen-hour days, weeks without a single day off, minimal pay that's withheld at no notice and with no explanation; and the work itself is hard, physically stressful, unhealthy, and dangerous. The people whose stories Pai tells here worked in electronics factories (breathing in fumes that induce asthma and high blood pressure), farms (picking vegetables on cold days with no tools and no protective gear), restaurants (on their feet for fourteen hours, paid a "basic wage" of £5 a day plus tips), brothels (constantly at risk of attacks from clients, and kept indoors in a state of virtual imprisonment), and private homes (as housekeepers and nannies, subject to the whims of employers who know all too well that they can't risk calling the police).
It's depressing reading, especially when I consider how entrenched the anti-immigration stance is in the political discourse, not just in the UK but all across Europe. Chinese and other undocumented workers play a vital role in keeping the economies of Europe going, working incredibly hard for very little, and yet every time the exploitation of their vulnerability creates a large-scale tragedy, the media story is not "how are we allowing these people to live like this?" but "why are they here?" And the government response is not "how can we make sure that people in this position have their rights defended?" but "how can we make sure that people like this aren't allowed in the country at all?" It makes me so angry, and the stories in this book just intensifies that; the individuality and humanity of these people (who have made great sacrifices to come to Britain and only want the opportunity to work and earn a little money to send home) is so clear, so obvious, and so totally ignored by the police and the government.
Shocking, horrifying, eye-opening, enraging -- essential reading.
(tags: chinese, british-chinese, immigration)
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