The J-1 Summer Work and Travel program, allows college students to come and work in the U.S. for up to four months and is one of the State Department’s most popular visas. Participation has boomed from about 20,000 in 1996 to a peak of more than 150,000 in 2008.
Some of the 100,000s of foreign college students who came to the U.S. on J-1 visas to participate in a summer work programs have been forced to work in strip clubs instead of restaurants. Others unfortunate students earned $1 an hour or less. These students recounted tales of living in apartments so crowded that they had to “hotbunk” or sleep in shifts because there were not enough beds. These unlucky students were routinely threatened with deportation or eviction if they quit.
It has been noted the J-1 is the ideal visa to exploit because the workers usually leave the country within a few months
Businesses that hire students can save 8 percent by using a foreign worker over an American employee because they do not have to pay Medicare, Social Security and unemployment taxes. The students are required to have health insurance before they arrive in the U.S., another cost that employers don’t have to bear. Many businesses say they need the seasonal work force to meet the demand of tourist season. Strip clubs and adult entertainment companies openly solicit J-1 workers, even though government regulations ban students from taking jobs “that might bring the Department of State into notoriety or disrepute.”
Hotels, restaurants and other businesses often hire third-party labor recruiters to supply the J-1 workers. Many of those brokers are people from the students’ native countries. These middlemen commonly dock students’ pay so heavily for lodging, transportation and other necessities that the wages work out to $1 an hour or less, according to George Collins, an inspector at the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department in the Florida Panhandle who has worked cases involving J-1 students since 2001.
Last month, the department said it had finally created a database of complaints.
“It turns out that until this year, we did NOT keep a record of complaints. Now, we do,” says Marthena Cowart, a senior adviser for the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
To read more please visit International Students in U.S. on J-1 Visas forced to Work in Strip Clubs, Earn Low Wages, Probe Finds