This series grew out of Gazette staff writer Amanda Drane’s reporting on restaurant working conditions earlier this year, which pointed to an underground economy in which undocumented immigrants were paid less than minimum wage at some establishments.
Many of the workers and owners interviewed do not speak English. Drane, who speaks Spanish, did the interviews with workers who speak that language. For interviews with Chinese-speaking workers and owners, the Gazette relied mostly on University of Massachusetts graduate student Yujia Ye. Former Zen worker Lin Geng also helped with translation, as did International Language Institute student Xia Xu.