A Comparative Analysis of a Foreign Worker’s Status in China and the U.S.

The U.S-Asia Law Institute at the NYU School of Law hosts a talk by Zhe Huang on the differences between U.S. and Chinese wrokers visa.

An alien’s status is a legal state of being in a country. It is dependent on different circumstances. For example, in the United States, an H-1B worker’s status is dependent on the individual employer. The H-1B status contains the legal right to work and live in the U.S. for that particular employer temporarily. The status does not afford more rights to legal foreign workers, comparing to illegal workers. 

In China, an alien worker’s status depends on the likes and dislikes of the state. A status in China affords more rights to legal foreign workers and illegal workers are punished by the state. An alien worker’s status contracts and expands according to different levels of talents. This presentation will discuss the differences of work visa holders’ status between these two countries and make an argument for reform. 

Zhe Huang is an immigration lawyer in New York and a researcher of Chinese property law. She received her SJ.D degree from University of Wisconsin Law School in 2015. Her research at Wisconsin focused on the social responsibilities of property rights on state-owned and collective-owned land in China. Her work has appeared in several U.S. and foreign journals. She received her LL.M from Shanghai Jiao Tong University Law School in 2010. Her research interests at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute are the nature of migrant workers’ status and the rights to live and work.

Text from the U.S.-Asia Law Institute of NYU Law School