For the minority of them that had arrived to vzla for more than 20 years, they were usually from HK or Canton (in Chinese). However, for those that arrived within the last 6 years, most, if not all, are illegal immigrants and are from the country side of China (Yan Ping). They saw people that went oversea mailed back big money. In addition, for some historical reason, Chinese always think that they are inferior and anywhere is better than China. Therefore, there is a lot of young people would like to take a chance and take this adventure. They don't have the requirement to leave the country legally, so they must pay the smuggler for US $12000 (or > $30000 US for North America) in order to achieve their dream. The deal includes the air flight to HK, and connects to Amsterdam (in Netherlands) and finally to vzla airport. (They don't need to pay if they get caught by the custom but they have to pay the custom or else they will be in jail). Sometimes these people are father or mother of young child. Every one of them told me that once they board the plane, they regretted. The tears and the cries of their child really tear their heart apart. They aware that they will not be able to see them again within the next couple of years, which is the most important year in their child's childhood.
Once they arrived to vzla, they will likely hide inside their relatives' house. Many of them are not allowed to leave the house for more than 1 step alone because their relatives worried that they will get lost since they don't know the area (how can they know if they are inside the house all the time?) and they don't know Spanish. They will just watch TV and miss their family. This situation lasts for several months.
Afterward, they will try to find a job, most likely a waiter or a cashier, especially because they only have their elementary school education level. (When I told them once that I may get laid off from my company, they seriously told me that they can help me to find a job in their restaurant as a waiter. They are very sincere, but I think that none of my friend in Vancouver would tell me to be waiter as my long term career. That would be fine if I just be it for a part time job, but as a long term career goal, it is ….) They need to work for 10 hours a day and 6 days a week. (For those of them that are not married, they would have a hard time to find their other half because their social circle is very small)
There are two large sum of money that they wanted to spend. First, they need to earn for their residency status in Venezuela. It costs the illegal immigrant here to obtain a legal status by paying the government about US $3000 or wait for over 10 years for their status to “legalize”. Sometimes they would have a fake residency document and there is no way to neither appeal nor complain because they did it in an illegal way at first anyway. Even if their documents are real, when the government is re-elected, the new government most of the time will void everything that the previous government did and they need to apply for a new one again. If they are lucky enough, they will have enough money earned to have a residency paper. Then they need to earn a flight ticket flight back to China to visit their family after leaving the country for over several years.
The current financial is not as easy as before. A waiter usually made about 600000Bs a month. It converted to about Cdn $1000 a month about 8 months ago (the time that I took the job in Venezuela) but worth only Cdn $500 now because the depletion of the Venezuelan currency. Despite of these, they will still mail big money back to China. It is because they wanted to show off to their relatives that they are having a really good life oversea, even though they were actually suffering. One time they told me that my Spanish teacher was quite expense as she charges me $8 an hour even she comes to my house to teach. I was thinking that the average tutoring price in Vancouver is at least $20. $8 actually is very cheap for a tutoring session!
(Here is some interesting observation... Some of the university graduate made about Cdn $400 a month, which is even less than a waiter. The job situation here actually discourages people to go to school. Why would anyone go to school when they can make more as a waiter, and even double if they are the "head waiter"? Therefore, a lot of old-timer Chinese here are store owner. They would make decent money but they need to work for 7 days a week and 12 hours a day!)
If any illegal immigrant gets caught on the street, they need to pay the police US $30. This money is not for the government; the police will keep it himself. Since most of the Chinese are illegal immigrant, the police really like to harass the Chinese. When I walk with the Chinese on the street, we will avoid the route that has police or any eye contact with the police. A pastor told me a story about a person who refused to pay this “coffee” money. That person tried to argue with the police after he got caught on the street. The police brought him to the police station and let him sit for several hours. Every now and then the police asked whether he wants to pay or not. That person was so firm that he did not pay. After about 6 hours of waiting, the police brought him to the back yard and threaten with some sticks. That person still refused to pay. The police ended up hit and robbed that person and took all his money, which is about $50. He is a police and not a thief; but I guess that I can’t see a difference here. The legal way when an illegal immigrant gets caught is that he should be sent to the embassy and be sent back to China. (But if they were sent to the embassy, the embassy people would ask them for over $1000 as coffee money instead of sending them back to China. Hence, it is cheaper to pay the police on the street)
Here are two cases that I heard from my church friends. There was a girl went to vzla to reunited with her boy friend. However, when she landed to vzla, her boyfriend separated from her and she had neither friends nor relatives there. During her stay in vzla, her most loved one, her father, died from a car accident. All these added up. She was now very open to the relationship between male and female and stopped coming to church. There is another person that has worked very hard and finally she saved about US $10k (I guess that it takes her two years even if she does not spend a penny!). She does not have a bank account because illegal immigrant would not have the status to open a bank account. Even she does, she would not because every time when we put money to the bank, not only that we don’t get interest but we have to give a 1% tax to the government! Hence, she put all her saving under her bed or inside her pillow. No one is supposed to know it except may be one or two of her close friend. However, one day she found that the money is gone; of course everyone denied that they stole the money. She was so depressed afterward and stop going to church.
Every time when I reflect to my own situation, I am very thankful. Even though I am hungry (I am not always lucky enough to have enough to eat especially during lunch), people are playing MJ outside, the water pressure of the shower is extremely small and without hot water (when the shower is at the level of my chest, it sometimes has no water at all and I have to bend my leg and be as low as possible to get some tiny water) and quite a number of ants are crawling into my chocolate that I just ate (I originally planned to give this as a gift but since I am so hungry, I would like to eat it now) and I am cold at night (because I brought my thick blanket back to Vancouver) I still give thanks to my situation because I am already very blessed. And actually these people are neither the poorest nor the most miserable. The missionaries told me that about 1/3 people in the world, most of them located in Africa, made about US $2 a month and they are struggle for food! From this perspective, I guess that I am too naive whenever I complain about the Beautiful BC’s situation (e.g. Glen Clark's fast ferry, tuition went up, need to shovel snow)