Nailed: Human trafficking in the Asian American community and the crime of silence

MANICURES and pedicures used to be vanities relegated to the rich, to that class of women who have nothing better to do than to look good. Nowadays, the procedures are so inexpensive, its as accessible and commonplace as having a haircut.

There's a reason the prices have come down so dramatically and it doesn't paint a pretty picture.

The recent series of articles that appeared in the New York Times this week, "The Price of Nice Nails", exposes the underside of all the manicures and pedicures loved by New York residents. New York City has the highest concentration of these shops catering to women of all classes. San Francisco and Los Angeles, the next largest concentrations of nail salons, have half as many per resident.

Its a form of human trafficking. Most people think human trafficking takes the form of prostitution. Sex trafficking is only one - albeit the most publicized - form of human trafficking. Contrary to popular belief, most of the sex trafficking victims are U.S citizens, not immigrants. 

Labor trafficking in the Asian American community is something no one wants to talk about. It is one of those stones no one wants to turn over for fear of what you might discover. But almost every new Asian immigrant knows someone, or is related to someone, who has been or is currently is in a trap between unscrupulous employers and the fear of deportation.

"Human trafficking," said President Obama, "must be called by its true name—modern slavery.

"Now, I do not use that word, 'slavery,' lightly," he said. "It evokes obviously one of the most painful chapters in our nation’s history. But around the world, there’s no denying the awful reality. When a man, desperate for work, finds himself in a factory or on a fishing boat or in a field, working, toiling, for little or no pay, and beaten if he tries to escape—that is slavery. When a woman is locked in a sweatshop, or trapped in a home as a domestic servant, alone and abused and incapable of leaving—that’s slavery."


Most of the women working in these salons are immigrants from Asia. Poor families often take loans or use their life savings to pay labor recruiters to take their daughter, sister or wife to America with the promise of untold fortune and opportunity. Some are enticed by promises of marriage to American citizens.

They speak little English and often paid below-minimum wage salaries. Their shaky immigration status makes them vulnerable to exploitation by their employers. 

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The Trafficking Victims Protection Act defines labor trafficking as: "The recruitment, harboring, transportation provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery."

Labor trafficking is not limited to nail salons and it is not just a New York problem.

Part of the work I do in California is helping our local agencies educate the public about human trafficking, helping the victims connect to services and making sure that those exploiters, those pimps or manipulative employers are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. In the Bay Area, we have formed a collaborative of law agencies and nonprofits to combat the the second largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world with as many as 27 million individuals living in slavery-like conditions throughout the world. That is more enslaved people than existed during the American Civil War.

Victims of labor trafficking can be right under our noses. Besides nail salons, they can be found in garment-makers' sweatshops, attendants in nursing homes, or laborers in construction, agriculture, or as domestic servants working in the homes of the well to do or politically connected.

Labor abuse is probably most widely practiced in the restaurant industry where workers live in cramped quarters, work for low wages and their passports taken from them. In one northern California case, a Chinese restaurant was closed down and as investigators gathered their evidence, all their workers disappeared the next day. The employers gave them bus tickets to their restaurants in other cities or states, or they simply went into hiding. The investigators lost their witnesses. Some workers were eventually tracked down and convinced to testify so the district attorney could file charges against the restaurant owners.

Another case prosecuted in northern California involved owners of group homes that cared for the elderly. It was found that workers in these homes were untrained and underpaid and forced to work long hours without compensation.

Trafficking in human beings is rampant in California where victims can disappear into the large Latino and Asian networks. Language difficulties and fear of deportation make victims hesitant to come forth. In some instances, threats to relatives in their home countries reinforces their fear as is a pending case involving bakery workers in southern California.

Nail salons may be in the spotlight now, but the first series of labor abuses in that industry began appearing seven years ago. In some cases, after a long day of pampering customers, at night the women were forced into prostitution. The hoopla generated by the NYTimes just shows how influential and widely read the Gray Lady is. The mayor and governor promised to crack down on those illegal practices.

Law enforcement agencies have made human trafficking among their top priorities along with drug dealing and the illegal sale of weapons.

So what is one to do if you're hooked on this aspect of personal grooming? (Liberals are just as apt to have their nails done as conservatives.) Tipping more probably won't help. That just means more money for the owner if he/she decides to share the tips at all.

If you are really torn about the possibility that the woman painting your nails is being exploited, Slate makes a good point on this: "Consider asking your state legislator to properly fund the state labor department so that it has enough manpower to look into these abuses. Remember, there are similar problems across all sorts of industries, especially restaurants. (The poor guy delivering your Chinese food through the rain? There's a strong chance he's living off nothing but tips, as well). Leaving your manicurist an extra $5 isn't going to solve them."

The next time you feel like indulging yourself by getting your nails done and the cost is less than getting a meal at McDonalds, maybe its time to reconsider your options. Its your choice.

If you suspect human trafficking, or you're a victim:

Call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888.

Here are some cues to look for that might indicate human trafficking is taking place. 
The National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is a national, toll-free hotline available to answer calls from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year. The NHTRC is not a law enforcement or immigration authority and is operated by a nongovernmental organization funded by the federal government.