the role of the bridgehead in anchoring the migration chain. Around the world, ship jumping has gained families a foothold on foreign shores. Chinese sailors always did the grimiest jobs on international steamships, such as stoking the coal-fired furnaces deep below the waterline. Many took ship as sailors on foreign freighters with the aim of emigrating through desertion. With their feet on dry land, their first task was to get employed, their second to regularize their immigration status, and their third to serve as a bridgehead for qinpeng haoyou—relatives and friends back home.
