I recently caught this article in my CBC news feed and it got me thinking about what the Chinese call “snake heads“.
They are so named for ‘leading/heading’ groups of “rénshé” into other countries. Rénshé is the slang for those Chinese that slither across borders into other countries illegally. Poetic language, Chinese is.
Snake heads are often the baddies in movies where some evil mastermind has packed a bunch of poor immigrants into a cargo container with too-little ventilation and is extorting an outlandish fee to bring them to the “good life”. We then learn, in clever plot twists that involve much action, that what the Snake Head actually has planned is to subject them to horrible medical experiments … or… cutting meat.
Such, at least, was the case in Brandon, Manitoba. Maple Leaf Foods, a huge producer of most my favorite luncheon meats, comes under attack in the article for having employed a bunch of Chinese workers that were forced to pay $10,000 to horrible, manipulative monsters. The sad pathetic people; their only desire, a better life in the West.
The Chinese workers say they were charged the fee, which partly covered English language instruction and training in meat cutting. As a result, many workers are struggling to pay debts related to the fee.
So, they had to pay an outlandish sum to an otherwise useless middle-person for some arbitrary training and now they’re in massive debt. Does this sound like the post-secondary education system to anyone else?
Honestly. Lets look at some quick facts. The average Chinese person makes about 10 RMB/hour in China – at Maple Leaf Foods they were making about $14/hour (100 RMB/hour). This means that they would have to work about four months ($2500/mo. * 4 mo.) to pay back the (albeit shady) system that got them the 1,000% pay increase.
Your average burger flipper makes $7/hour and decides to get a better job. They then spend $5,000/yr. over four years and get a degree. If they get lucky, they don’t go back to grease burns, but instead get an entry-level job for about $28,000/yr. – or $13.50/hr – enabling them to pay back their loan in just shy of 8.5 months. All for a comparatively small 50% increase in salary.
So, would the real Cobra Commander please stand up.
The funny part, at least in the case of the Maple Leaf workers, is the pity they’re getting.
Robert Ziegler, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers local 832, which represents Maple Leaf workers in Brandon, said he hopes the company will repay the 61 affected employees.
“Basically, $10,000 Canadian for these people is like four years’ salary. Can you imagine paying that amount to be in debt? I can’t,” Ziegler said.
Actually Robert, I can.
I’m not saying that these snake heads are good people. I’m certainly not saying that I agree with them using the premise of better work and more money to exploit people that may indeed have worked very hard to save up those initial fees, but we’re not exactly talking about leading them to diabolical medical experiments or anything.
In response to Robert’s comments that Maple Leaf should repay the workers the $10k, a spokesperson for Maple Leaf commented, “the reality is that these people are adults.” I’d go so far as to say that they’re adults that knew what the hell they were doing and are now reaping major benefits. So, what’s the problem?
I would say that the one that pay $10K and make it to Canada (or the US, or Europe, or wherever) and are able to land real (if low paying) jobs and then pay back the money owed aren’t the problem. It’s the “let’s just take their money and drop them off in the Arizona desert” or “here’s a sewing machine and a few bucks a day, now get to work!” guys that need to be stopped. A reasonable work visa system for skilled or semi-skilled workers would do the trick, but politically it’s a non-starter.
And, though my only knowledge of canneries comes from Steinbeck (I assume lunch meat processing is basically the same), I’m pretty sure that by going to university I ended up with the long end of the stick.
I agree with ya John, and by no means was the post supposed to legitimize the whole ‘snake head’ concept – however, I think what the media does is lump all this together and forces a loss of perspective.
They definitely portrayed the Chinese workers as having being taken advantage of – but if that’s being taken advantage of… they’re going to need a few more media outlets to cover the endless number of stories that would qualify.
As for the longer end of the stick, perhaps. However, when it comes to sheer income vs. debt there’s little question. Personally, I’d rather be unemployed with a degree than employed as a chicken catcher without one… but there’s not much financial logic to it.
Eh sorry Ryan,
What is so good about being unemployed with a degree?? No money=No money and it sucks big time.
Duofu: Ya missed my point. I wasn’t saying being unemployed with a degree is good. Obviously no money is no money. What I was saying was that these people, despite having to pay a big sum of money to get there, had a much better income than they did previously – more than most uni grads, and with less debt.
John went on to say that he felt life was better with a degree, regardless. I tend to agree that having a higher education is better… but that was not the original point.
Ok, I understand, but I still don’t quite agree with your calculation, since those without degrees might see an increase in their wage with a 1000% as you described it, their further advancement is limited or nearly inexistant, while fresh univ grads will keep on moving (if they are at least a bit ambitious) increasing their wages throughout their lifetime and having more experiences in different kinds of jobs.
So at the initial stage you are right but further down the line the difference in possibilities is humongous.