An account of recent illegal Chinese immigration to the USA. The book is based on research into immigration patterns over the last two centuries, and on interviews with many workers, activists, Chinatown power-brokers, and "snakeheads" - smugglers who get people into the country illegally.

A radical new analysis of illegal immigration from one of the country's foremost experts on Chinese immigration and labor. Peter Kwong traces Chinese immigrants' lives and exposes the contradictions in our national immigration and labor policies. Kwong uses the specifics of the Chinese experience to shed light on the dilemmas shared by illegal immigrants of color in general.