Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
CHANGLE, China — His older brother was the pioneer, more than a decade ago. His son followed three years ago. As recently as last year, his daughter planned to join this exodus of thousands from Fujian Province who have gambled that the life of a smuggled immigrant in America would eclipse that of an impoverished native in China.
But she lost interest after her brother's experience.
"Life is much more difficult than he expected, so I regret sending him to America," said the father, Mr. Wang, who — like some others interviewed for this article — spoke on the condition that only his surname be used. "He is miserable. He says to me, `Why am I working so hard in America? I can get rich at home.' It's very different from the way it used to be."
…Today, the smuggling trade continues, though perhaps at a slower clip, people here say, costing $60,000 per head. But for the first time, many Fujianese feel less urgency about venturing abroad.
They have more options at home, with jobs available in small businesses, steel factories or construction sites. It is far more convenient and less troublesome, some people say, to make small money in the comfort of familiar surroundings, instead of relatively big money in the clutches of a lonely and inhospitable land.
Some smuggled Chinese are even leaving America as soon as they pay their debts, and without gaining permanent residency, because they want a less stressful life at home.
"America is no paradise," said one man surnamed Zheng, who returned to the village of Shengmei a few years ago. He described a seven-year odyssey that started in New York but took him to many other places. "It was the same routine every day for six or seven years," he droned. "Get up. Work for 16 hours. Go to bed. Get up again. I was a fool. A machine."
…Changle, a county of about 650,000 people, has changed, too. Several years ago, the county seat, also named Changle, was a dusty, lethargic town with bleak prospects, said Mr. Kwong, who collaborated on a documentary film about Fujianese emigrants in the mid-1990's. Now, it is a bustling city crowned by new high-rise apartments, stylish new stores and a new boulevard, North Shiyang Street.
Changle is full of people, like Zhou Xueqing, whose attitudes toward emigration have changed. More than a decade ago, her husband went to New York to work as a cook, and he sends home a few hundred dollars a month. But he is depressed, and his health is deteriorating.
His hard life deterred their son from going to America. He went to Shanghai instead. He now runs a mobile phone business and earns $12,000 a year, a good income there.
"The average person doesn't want to be smuggled into America anymore," said Ms. Zhou, who works at a new bedding store. "The economy is so terrible there."