Thirty-six-year-old Chen Wang, from southeastern China, said he decided to come to the U.S. in late 2021 after he posted comments critical of the ruling party on Twitter. He was admonished by local police and feared that he could be imprisoned.
More than two years later, he is still unemployed and lives in a tent in the woods that he has made into a home. Chen described his fellow Chinese on the journey as simply people “chasing a better life.”
Big oof there buddy. Came to the wrong place.
I do in a way. I don’t know how to put it, but to be so thoroughly fooled by the fools gold roads that you’d think an undocumented immigrant could do better here than a legal citizen could do there is very sad. I make more than 4x the fed min wage and the only way I could afford to move out is if I put aside all of my hopes of saving and building a better future. Someone working under the table, without a large family to live with also working under the table, is going to have a really hard time here. And without the support networks that prior immigrants provide, it’s no surprise he lives in a tent in the woods.