The migrant caravan heading to the US has grown by more than a thousand in just 24 hours, as social media teaches Chinese citizens how to achieve the American dream.
Hundreds of others have joined the caravan of migrants in Mexico heading north, one of the organizers said, bringing the total number to about 7,000 as the group traveled through the southern state of Chiapas.
Organizer Irineo Mujica said on Tuesday that the caravan had grown by about 1,000 to more than 7,000 people since Monday, although a spokesman for the Chiapas government said state authorities still estimated its size at around 3,500 participants.
It comes as the US is seeing a big increase in arrivals via a relatively new and dangerous route through Panama’s Darién Gap jungle, thanks in part to social media posts and videos offering step-by-step guidance.
According to Panamanian immigration authorities, Chinese were the fourth highest nationality, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, to cross the Darién Gap during the first nine months of this year. Chinese migrants using this route fly to Ecuador and then head north to the US-Mexico border.
The migrant caravan heading to the US has grown by more than a thousand in just 24 hours, as social media teaches Chinese citizens how to achieve the American dream
Chinese were the fourth highest nationality, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, to cross the Darién Gap during the first nine months of this year
It comes as the US sees a major increase in the use of a relatively new and dangerous route through Panama’s Darién Gap jungle.
The monthly number of Chinese migrants crossing the Darién has gradually increased, from 913 in January to 2,588 in September. At the U.S.-Mexico border, the Border Patrol arrested 22,187 Chinese nationals for illegally crossing the border from Mexico from January through September, nearly 13 times as many as in the same period in 2022.
On Tuesday, the caravan rested in the municipality of Huehuetan, about 25 kilometers from Tapachula, a town near the Guatemalan border from which the migrants departed. On Wednesday, the caravan will reach the town of Huixtla, about 13 miles (21 kilometers) north, Mujica said.
Migrants from Central America, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti began the journey on Monday after growing frustrated with the long wait times the Mexican government took to process their refugee or exit visa applications at the main immigration processing center in the Chiapas town of Tapachula. near the border with Guatemala.
The Mexican National Migration Institute, which is in charge of approving or rejecting the applications, is supported with requests. Migrants normally wait weeks or months before their status is legalized, allowing them to work and move freely within the country.
On Wednesday the caravan will reach the town of Huixtla, about 21 kilometers to the north
The march would be the largest since June 2022, when 6,000 people, many from Venezuela, set out from Tapachula.
The Darien Gap route is viable for Chinese immigrants because they can fly to Ecuador without a visa. From Quito, they travel together with Latin Americans through the once impenetrable Darién and through several Central American countries before reaching the American border. The journey is well known enough and has its own name in Chinese: ‘walk the line’ or ‘zouxian’.
Short video platforms and messaging apps have popularized the route. They offer on-the-spot video clips and step-by-step guides from China to the US, including tips on what to pack, where to find guides, how to survive the jungle, which hotels to stay in, how much to bribe police in different countries and what to do if you encounter U.S. immigration officials. Translation apps allow migrants to navigate Central America independently, even if they don’t speak Spanish or English.
Short video app Douyin, owned by TikTok owner ByteDance, is one of the main sources of the Chinese tech giant’s overall revenue, Reuters previously reported.
A Chinese migrant told Reuters she came across “Baozai,” an internet personality who gained tens of thousands of followers on Douyin, Xigua Video, YouTube and Twitter by posting videos about his migration to the United States.
Baozai’s original report ‘Baozai Adventure the World Alone’ was blocked on Douyin for violating ‘community self-discipline rules’.
He now posts under a new account with the same name on Douyin, sticking to the content about his life in the United States.
Many migrants flee poverty and political instability in their home countries
Reuters found other social media accounts offering advice in Mandarin about crossing the US-Mexico border. An April 7 Twitter post from an account named Lee Gaga said smugglers mark the locations of U.S. Border Patrol agents on maps and advise migrants on how to surrender to them. In messages and messages exchanged with Reuters, the Twitter user identified as Lee Gaga said he was now in the New York City area after a 37-day trip.
“Of course you can try to run away, but that is not recommended,” the post said. Twitter is blocked in China, but users may be able to access the platform through VPNs, or virtual private networks, that allow internet users to access foreign sites blocked by authorities.
The Twitter poster continued: “I was only released after three days and three nights. I’ve been lucky because the border policy has been good lately.”
US President Joe Biden, who is seeking re-election next year, is under pressure to reduce the number of people entering the United States illegally from Mexico.
Many migrants flee poverty and political instability in their home countries.
Emigration from China began to rise significantly in 2018, when President Xi Jinping amended the constitution to remove presidential term limits. The pandemic and China’s COVID-19 policies, which included strict border controls, temporarily halted the exodus, but emigration has resumed, with China’s economy struggling to recover and youth unemployment high.
The latest wave of Chinese migrants even has an internet meme, “runxue.” The term, which means the study of running, began as a way to circumvent censorship, using a Chinese character whose pronunciation is similar to the English word “run” but means “to moisten.”