THIS STORY OF foreign students protesting their wages at a chocolate plant in Pennsylvania is truly remarkable. The students came to this country on State Department work-travel visas, known as J-1 visas, which are commonly used to provide businesses with a pool of cheap foreign labor, especially in the summer. The students’ complaints, judging from the news accounts, are two-fold. One, they wanted to make more money for less labor. (They are paid $8.35 an hour.) Two, they wanted to have a good time.

One of the students came right out and said that she was expecting Charle’s Chocolate Factory, not a real manufacturing plant.  What an outrage. No Oompa-Loompas or Willy Wonka. No Veruca Salt or Mike Teavee. According to the New York Times,

When she was offered a contract for a job at a plant with Hershey’s chocolates, she said, she was excited. “We have all seen Charlie’s chocolate factory,” she said. “We thought, ‘This is good.’ ”

The State Department grants the students visas through an agency called the Council for Educational Travel. The Council works with employers around America to find foreign students jobs, a service unavailable to Americans. There are no agencies rounding up paying jobs and summer housing for any American college students who are without employment and would like to work.

Here’s the agency’s description of the work program, which, while clearly promotional, does not seem misleading about the purpose of the visas:

If you decide to participate on the CETUSA Work and Travel Program, you are in for an adventure! The Work and Travel Program offers you a chance to spend your summer vacation in the U.S. while working for an American company. You will experience firsthand what life is like for a typical american [sic] young adult. You will gain valuable work and life experience, expand your resume, improve your English, have opportunity to travel in the U.S., make great memories and form lasting relationships. No matter where you end up in the U.S., your Work and Travel Program is sure to be a summer you will never forget!

The students must have a job before being granted a J-1 visa.  Presumably these students knew they would be working in a chocolate factory. They also were required to prove they have sufficient funds to support themselves while here, which is probably why the costs of the program are fairly high.

My older son worked in the White Mountains of New Hampshire last summer during his college break. There were two Taiwanese girls there on J-1 visas. They were uncooperative, resentful and could not speak English. They spent their days off at local malls, returning with hundreds of dollars of purchased goods. They apparently believed they were coming to a mythical America for vacation. 

Not all foreign students who come on the visas are uncooperative or rich, and many are obviously good workers, but it is perplexing why this program is needed at all. The protesting students are right about one thing. The program is not an idealistic venture in cultural exchange.

                                                       — Comments—

Michael S. writes:

My first thought: “Seriously?”

My second thought: “To hell with this nonsense. Let them go home.”

Eric writes:

If the students were misled, they have a reason to protest, and I don’t blame them. But this is a loophole in the work visa program that needs to be closed.

Laura writes:

There may be other agencies involved in their own countries. The Council for Educational Travel does state that they are coming to work like ordinary Americans and that they must have a job before they arrive. As one of the students said, she knew she would be working in a chocolate factory.

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