Interesting article on Chinese restaurant workers

[UglyCasanova]

New Yorker article

I thought it was a good article on something that most of us never think about, the life of those that work the countless Chinese restaurants across the country.

 

[disappoint]

Good article, thanks.

 

[Ns1]

begs the question - does a similar system exist for mexican immigrants?

 

[lxskllr]

Pretty interesting. I never considered the employees were basically migrants. I assumed the restaurants were largely family owned and operated; kept close.

 

[MrCassdin]

I swear the local Chinese buffet is a slave trade. Every time I am in there, it's all new people - 90% young girls probably 18 or younger, speak zero English other than "What drink?" and "More drink?" I never see the same girls twice, I'm in there probably twice a month.

 

[feralkid]

begs the question - does a similar system exist for mexican immigrants?

"Begs the question" doesn't mean what you think it does.

 

[Kadarin]

The local Chinese restaurant where I get takeout from is run by Chinese people, but employs Mexicans as cooks.

 

[Svnla]

The local Chinese restaurant where I get takeout from is run by Chinese people, but employs Mexicans as cooks.

Same here. The folks run the front are Asians/Chinese but the ones that do all the work in the back are Hispanics/Mexicans from the Chinese restaurants around here.

 

[zinfamous]

there is a very terrible takeout chinese take out place a few steps away--I will sometimes stop by on my way home from work if I'm being lazy and really don't mind cramming salt and corn syrup down my face that evening. I once got a peek into the kitchen, and I always felt those dudes, the way they are lined up, not talking to each other, just shuffling frozen meats from one pot to the next, that they were some sort of straight off the boat migratory labor force.

I read that article the other day, and was surprised that this really is the case.

 

[fstime]

The system is basically human trafficking.

Here in CT, they usually use some sort of large passenger van to shuttle in chinese workers from NYC. The business owner usually provides them with residency where they are packed into some house or apartment and transportation to his restaurant.

Who knows, they are probably basically indentured servants, working for free for X amount of years until their debt for trafficking them into the USA is paid off while they are provided with shelter, transportation (to and from work), and a job.

 

[Markbnj]

Interesting article. Thanks for posting it. I think I like that guy Rain, both his work ethic and his attitude toward the food he makes. I'd eat at his Fujianese restaurant.

 

[Leros]

I know a guy whose parents own a huge Chinese restaurant. He said they bring over indentured servants from China and have a dormitory under the restaurant where they all live. He said his parents pay something like $5000 per servant and they work for them for 5 years. He feels that its moral because these are poor Chinese workers that would gladly give up 5 years so that they can come to the US.

 

[Leros]

I swear the local Chinese buffet is a slave trade.

Maybe it is. Makes you wonder how bad it really is though compared to some of the horror stories you hear about Chinese factory workers. Maybe indentured servitude in the US is better than working in a factory in China?

 

[Newbian]

I swear the local Chinese buffet is a slave trade. Every time I am in there, it's all new people - 90% young girls probably 18 or younger, speak zero English other than "What drink?" and "More drink?" I never see the same girls twice, I'm in there probably twice a month.

Better there then somewhere else.

 

[tcsenter]

"Begs the question" doesn't mean what you think it does.

The question was raisin!

 

[Raizinman]

I was at a large Chinese Buffet that I regularly visit. I was at the buffet filling up my plate when one of the employees backed into me with a very hot plate and got me on the back soft part of my arm. The skin on my arm quickly sizzled and I let out a bit of a scream. She profusely apologized and in broken English asked me to come into the back to apply some ointment and bandage. I followed her. In the back was a very tightly packed area, but what caught my eye was 4 or 5 round tables, the same which were in the dining room with about 8 kids packed around them sitting in chairs. These kids were peeling shrimp, cutting fruits and vegetables, cutting meat and more at each table. As I was getting a bandage, the manager walked by and yelled at this server in some Asian language, started to make her cry, and then she escorted me out of the back room very quickly. They comp'ed my meal but charged me for the soft drink? Go know!? I debated about turning them in to child protective services, but the kids all looked happy, I grew up working in my family business as a kid, and why should I risk loosing the best Chinese food for miles around?

 

[Murloc]

there aren't as many chinese restaurants here but it's true that they have very self-sufficient and closed-off communities (china towns) and that they do this massive human trafficking and illegal immigration.

In Prato, Italy they run clothes factories which are run in the same conditions as those in China, with closed off emergency doors so that the workers cannot run away or go smoke without their boss seeing them and stuff. Sometimes one of them burns and a few people die.
Also all the restaurants that serve sushi are not really japanese, maybe the boss is, the workers are all chinese.

At least the chinese run these rackets to do actual work, unlike other groups who just create criminal networks.

 

[luv2liv]

i clicked on the link and see a wall of text.
cliff notes anyone?

 

[gotsmack]

I was at a large Chinese Buffet that I regularly visit. I was at the buffet filling up my plate when one of the employees backed into me with a very hot plate and got me on the back soft part of my arm. The skin on my arm quickly sizzled and I let out a bit of a scream. She profusely apologized and in broken English asked me to come into the back to apply some ointment and bandage. I followed her. In the back was a very tightly packed area, but what caught my eye was 4 or 5 round tables, the same which were in the dining room with about 8 kids packed around them sitting in chairs. These kids were peeling shrimp, cutting fruits and vegetables, cutting meat and more at each table. As I was getting a bandage, the manager walked by and yelled at this server in some Asian language, started to make her cry, and then she escorted me out of the back room very quickly. They comp'ed my meal but charged me for the soft drink? Go know!? I debated about turning them in to child protective services, but the kids all looked happy, I grew up working in my family business as a kid, and why should I risk loosing the best Chinese food for miles around?

I wouldn't be surprised if the kids were family and extended family of the owners. I come from a restaurant family on my dad's side and I was free labor.

 

[Ns1]

I wouldn't be surprised if the kids were family and extended family of the owners. I come from a restaurant family on my dad's side and I was free labor.

Same with my friend. Dad owned a chinese restaurant no less.

 

[zinfamous]

i clicked on the link and see a wall of text.
cliff notes anyone?

Wall of text? It's an article

 

[Markbnj]

i clicked on the link and see a wall of text.
cliff notes anyone?

Yes, it is a collection of words exploring and expounding on a particular theme of interest to the person who wrote the words. There are a lot of words. If you read all the words, then you may get some sense of what the person who wrote them was trying to say. Or you could watch a video.

 

[zerocool84]

begs the question - does a similar system exist for mexican immigrants?

In most places, the ones doing the cooking are Mexicans in all restaurants.

 

[Jeff7]

Yes, it is a collection of words exploring and expounding on a particular theme of interest to the person who wrote the words. There are a lot of words. If you read all the words, then you may get some sense of what the person who wrote them was trying to say. Or you could watch a video.

 

[andylawcc]

As a chinese the details of this article come to a surprise to me.