Transcript: Illegal in Beijing

INTERVIEWER: What's she doing?

KRISTIN: Oh -- this is a tool used for making noodles.

INTERVIEWER: Where does the noodle lady come from originally?

KRISTIN: She's from ah, a county in Shanxi province. She's typical of migrants that live in this area. She probably didn't own a restaurant back at home, she probably worked on the land, but almost all restaurants in major cities are run by migrants.

KRISTIN: So all of these kids walking around are my students.

STUDENT: My name is Li Xiu Ying. I come from China -- the Jilin province.

KRISTIN: This is her father Mr. Li. They're taking us to their house.

NARRATOR: Mr. Li is well educated and works as an editor for a local newspaper. Because he's an illegal immigrant he's paid a fraction of the normal salary.

KRISTIN: This is an area where a lot of the kids live. The reason they live in these kinds of houses is because one story houses in Beijing are cheaper then apartment complexes or multiple storied buildings. So here we go. This one room is where they live. Ah, this is their entire house for three people. This is the bedroom, the living room, this is everything. This is Ms. Do -- she is the mother of Li Xiu Ying.

KRISTIN: This is where she cooks. Oh there's a, they stir fry vegetables here. Oh and the water is outside. There is no bathroom in this house. There's a public restroom that everybody in this neighborhood uses and then they go next door to use their neighbor's shower. Her clothes are right here in this box. She studies right here at this desk.

KRISTIN: The reason he can not send his daughter to public school in Beijing is income -- he doesn't make enough money. 125 U.S. dollars a month.

KRISTIN: She said that she would rather go to a Beijing public school because she could receive a formal education that's recognized by the state and the conditions would be better. She wants to go to Harvard to be a lawyer.

LI XIU YING: Lawyer, lawyer

KRISTIN: Her father says that she's not attending schools that are good enough to enable her to go to a university like Harvard or to leave China in the future, but she believes that with her own hard work that she may be able to make her dreams come true.