After a Treacherous Journey to the U.S., Chinese Asylum Seekers Find Language Barriers Hold Them Back
Chinese asylum seekers have expressed difficulties in accessing city services and resources in the Chinese language. Instead, they say Chinese community members and other Chinese migrants have been offering guidance
APRIL XU
JAN 24, 2024
In December 2022, when China announced a wide-scale easing of COVID quarantine rules, Herman Huang traveled from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong to Hong Kong, which marked the first leg of his thousand-mile-long journey to the United States.
Huang took multiple flights, stopping in Thailand and Turkey before landing in Ecuador. There, he joined hundreds of Chinese migrants and thousands of Latin Americans to trek north through the dangerous Darién Gap. Chinese migrants often refer to this journey as “zouxian,” meaning “walk the line.”
It took Huang, 41, over a month to cross several Central American countries before he reached the southern U.S. border. When he arrived in Arizona in January last year, he thought he had overcome the most challenging part of his migration. However, he still faced equally formidable challenges. Eager to find a lawyer for his asylum case, Huang paid $2,000 to a Chinese attorney in Los Angeles, who he later discovered was unlicensed. The lawyer claimed that he could assist him in easily obtaining a work permit, but he became unresponsive after receiving Huang’s payment.
https://documentedny.com/2024/01/24/chinese-migrants-southern-border/
