Thread: State Dept. Asks Cutback on Summer Work Travel Visas

"The Summer Work Travel Program is one of 15 “J visaâ€

My parents knew a kid from Finland, who came over here with 7 other Finnish kids to do summer work at a fine-dining restaurant in New Jersey. The restaurant was a truck stop diner, and the kids were housed in a concrete room on mattresses covered in old vomit. He called my mom, she got all her friends to put money together to get these kids to Virginia, and they found summer jobs for all of them, housed them in American homes, and so many of the Americans still keep in touch with their proteges who are grandparents now.
Kids come to America for summer jobs to learn about this country, not to be abused. And yes, the visas are being abused by the summer workers. Why even have any of them when so many college kids cannot find summer jobs (44 percent of college students are on food stamps in Fla.)?

Amusement piers in shore communities hire thousands of these kids, house them in buildings they own and charge them rent. All in all, they are paying them less than they did American students and raking in the cash from the rent. Very profitable for the companies, not good for the students (American and foreign).

This is a job I used to do as a teen, but I didn't need housing, as I stayed with family. It's been more decades since American students were hired.