Peter Kwong, Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor. New York: The New Press, 1997. xi + 273 pp. $24.00 cloth; $14.95 paper

• Published in: International Labor and Working-Class History 1999, Vol.56, p.175-177, Article S0147547999452883
• Main Author: Parmet, Robert D.
• Format: Review
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0147-5479; 1471-6445
• DOI: 10.1017/S0147547999452883

The publication of Chinatown, New York: Labor and Politics, 1930–1950 (1979) and The New Chinatown (1987, rev. ed., 1996) established Peter Kwong as an authority on New York City's Chinese-American community. His latest book confirms this position. Kwong retraces some familiar ground, but only after first probing the causes, characteristics, and consequences of illegal Chinese immigration. He discusses this problem in relation to the immigration and labor policies of the United States government and organized labor while maintaining that the fundamental difficulties Chinese illegals encounter originate in the American marketplace. “The problem of illegal immigration, including Chinese immigration,” Kwong contends, “can only be understood in the context of the underlying supply-and-demand principle enshrined in traditional U.S. economics” (7). In brief, an abundance of low-wage jobs exist, made possible by lax enforcement of governmental labor standards and a weak labor movement. Indeed, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which imposed sanctions on employers who “knowingly” hire undocumented immigrants, has instead led to their employment on substandard terms without reducing their numbers.