{"id":13214,"date":"2015-09-27T17:07:03","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T03:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13214"},"modified":"2015-09-27T17:07:03","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T03:07:03","slug":"honolulu-civil-beat-cultural-exchange-program-or-a-ticket-to-sweatshop-labor-contrast-us-with-j-example-of-exploitative-visa-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13214","title":{"rendered":"Honolulu Civil Beat: Cultural Exchange Program or a Ticket to Sweatshop Labor? Contrast US with J example of exploitative visa conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. Debito.org has long complained about how NJ (especially the “Trainees<\/a>” being thrust into sweatshop and slave labor<\/a>) were being exploited by ill-designed and unsupervised visa statuses in Japan. Let’s take a look at the American example and do a bit of triangulating. Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

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A Cultural Exchange Program or a Ticket to Sweatshop Labor?
\nA Japanese woman’s poor working conditions as a Waikiki pastry chef illustrate the dark side of a visa program that brings thousands of temporary foreign workers to Hawaii each year.
\nApril 7, 2015\u00b7By Rui Kaneya<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.civilbeat.com\/2015\/04\/a-cultural-exchange-program-or-a-ticket-to-sweatshop-labor\/<\/a><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for the 30-year-old Japanese pastry chef to realize that she was getting the raw end of the deal.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

She had arrived in Hawaii only days before, lured by a promise of pastry training as part of a cultural exchange program run by the U.S. State Department. The terms of her stay, under a visa known as J-1, were to spend the next 18 months working in the kitchen of a Waikiki restaurant \u2014 six days a week on 8-hour shifts beginning at 6:30 a.m.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But she found herself toiling inside the kitchen in a shift that began at 5:30 a.m. and stretched to 12 hours \u2014 without any breaks or overtime pay.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2012, a Japanese pastry chef arrived in Hawaii on a J-1 visa, only to find herself working at a Waikiki restaurant in sweatshop conditions. She requested her name and the name of the restaurant not be used.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When she complained, she said no one lent a sympathetic ear.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Initially, she said she was told that none of the restaurants in Hawaii offered any breaks. And, if she were to work on a shorter shift, her salary would have to be reduced accordingly.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unsatisfied, she went to her American sponsor organization and its Japanese contractors that had matched her up with the restaurant, but she said her pleas for their intervention were met with threats that her visa could be taken away.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Soon, it dawned on her that she faced a Faustian choice: endure the grueling conditions at the restaurant or risk being deported for not showing up to work.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the J-1 terms are so restrictive, if they stop working for a day, they are out of status and deportable, so the employers hold all of the strings.\u201d \u2014 Kathryn Xian, Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, I was confused and didn\u2019t know what to do,\u201d the chef said, recalling her ordeal in 2012. Civil Beat granted her anonymity and withheld the restaurant\u2019s name at her request. She said she feared reprisals.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The chef\u2019s story, recounted in an interview conducted in Japanese, provides a rare glimpse into the dark side of the J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program, which was created half a century ago to foster \u201cglobal understanding\u201d through cultural exchanges but has since blossomed into the source of thriving, multi-million-dollar businesses.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s virtually impossible to determine just how common these experiences are among about 2,000 J-1 visa holders in Hawaii.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s in part because the program, as a cultural exchange, isn\u2019t subject to monitoring by the U.S. Department of Labor \u2014 unlike other guest worker programs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The State Department, for its part, recently established a system to keep track of all complaints it receives, but spokeswoman Susan Pittman told Civil Beat that the tally for the entire program isn\u2019t readily available, and a Freedom of Information Act request must be submitted before the data could be compiled.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Kathryn Xian, founder and executive director of the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, says another reason the issue tends to fly under people\u2019s radar is that the victims often choose to escape their situation by simply returning to their home country.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s difficult about J-1 is that these people usually don\u2019t seek help,\u201d Xian said. \u201cBecause the J-1 terms are so restrictive, if they stop working for a day, they are out of status and deportable, so the employers hold all of the strings.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
\n \u2018Notoriety\u2019 and \u2018Disrepute\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Created under the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961, the J-1 program was designed to give foreign students and young professionals a temporary work experience and expose them to the American way of life \u2014 at no cost to taxpayers.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people pay upwards of $10,000 in fees and insurance to enter the country under the program and work for four to 18 months. The State Department\u2019s latest figures show that more than 297,000 J-1 visas were issued in 2012, including 2,021 visas for those heading to work in Hawaii.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But, in recent years, some participants \u2014 and their advocates \u2014 have complained that it\u2019s being used as a source of cheap, foreign labor with little federal oversight.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The issue grabbed national headlines in 2012, when hundreds of J-1 visa holders working at Hershey\u2019s packing plant in Pennsylvania staged a raucous protest. About 400 of them were staying in the country for \u201cSummer Work Travel,\u201d the biggest of the 14 categories of the J-1 program allowing students of modest means to work in a temporary job as a way of offsetting the costs of their travel to the U.S.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn theory, these sponsors are supposed to be helping keep participants safe and avoid exploitations of any kind to take place. But, in reality, a fox is in charge of the hen house.\u201d \u2014 Stephen Boykewich, National Guestworker Alliance<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

They were put to work, often on night shifts, lifting heavy boxes and packing chocolates on Hershey\u2019s fast-moving production line \u2014 while being paid substantially below the minimum wage after deductions.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The troubling tales of the summer programs were nothing new to officials at the State Department. In 2010, an investigation by the Associated Press uncovered widespread abuse, finding that some students were taking home less than $1 an hour, while others were being forced to work as strippers \u2014 even though the regulations prohibit the students from taking on work that could \u201cbring the Department of State into notoriety or disrepute.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In response, the State Department conducted a systematic review of the summer program and eventually acknowledged that its \u201cwork component \u2026 has too often overshadowed the core cultural component.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The department later issued new rules for the program that significantly reduced the types of jobs the students can perform \u2014 to keep them away from most warehouse, construction, manufacturing and food-processing work. The rules also tightened requirements on the sponsor organizations and their contractors that administer the J-1 program on behalf of the State Department, ensuring that students were matched up with jobs that are appropriate and safe.<\/em><\/strong>
\n Ripe for Exploitation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The changes haven\u2019t rooted out all the unlawful labor practices in the J-1 program.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week, the Labor Department announced that a Waikiki-based wedding planner called Wave USA Inc. \u2014 aka Ka Nalu Wedding \u2014 agreed to pay more than $35,000 in restitution to a group of eight Japanese employees, all of whom were here on J-1.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the Labor Department, the eight were the company\u2019s \u201cfront-line workers\u201d from November 2012 to July 2014 and were paid full-time salaries that varied from $700 to $1,000 a month \u2014 a rate well below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stephen Boykewich, communications director at the National Guestworker Alliance, which helped organize the Hershey\u2019s protest in 2012, said the problems persist because of the program\u2019s flawed setup: The sponsor organizations and their contractors, which are responsible for vetting the hosting companies, are the ones tasked to monitor the working conditions. So, when any problem comes up, they have a vested interest in downplaying it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn theory, these sponsors are supposed to be helping keep participants safe and avoid exploitations of any kind to take place,\u201d Boykewich said. \u201cBut, in reality, a fox is in charge of the hen house.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In Hawaii, the issue is compounded by the fact that there are only seven sponsor organizations operating in the islands, and they only place participants into academic institutions \u2014 typically as scholars or physicians.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That means those looking for nonacademic work in Hawaii are forced to find their sponsor organization from the mainland, and this arrangement makes the regular, on-site monitoring of the working conditions a logistical nightmare.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

John Robert Egan, an immigration attorney who once chaired the Hawaii chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, says the way the system is set up now works to the advantage of unscrupulous employers.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the problem is that they are bringing in people who don\u2019t speak good enough English and are not familiar with the legal system and don\u2019t know what protections are available. So that\u2019s ripe for exploitation,\u201d Egan said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Alleged Bad Acts\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Japanese pastry chef came to Hawaii hoping that her training here would bring her closer to realizing her dream of opening her own bakery.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To make her trip possible, she had to work with layers of contractors in Japan. First, she dealt with a company called Global Associates and its subsidiary, Hawaii Exchange Service. They then put her in touch with their affiliate \u2014 a Japanese company called the American Career Opportunity Inc. \u2014 to help her go through an English proficiency test and work with a California-based sponsor organization called the ASSE International Student Exchange Programs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In all, she paid about $8,850 in fees and $1,300 for her medical insurance. And she spent thousands of dollars more to make living arrangements in Hawaii.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By the time she arrived and discovered her restaurant\u2019s working conditions, her savings account had been tapped out. \u201cI felt trapped as I had invested so much time and money to come to work on my J-1 visa,\u201d she wrote in her 2012 affidavit to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. \u201cI did not believe I could go home as I would realistically never have another opportunity to come back to the U.S.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But going back to work for the restaurant wasn\u2019t much of a choice for her, either. Luckily, a network of friends, victims\u2019 advocates and pro bono attorneys came to her rescue and got her in touch with officials at the U.S. State and Labor departments.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m terrified of running into the restaurant owners. I\u2019m too scared; I still can\u2019t walk alone in Waikiki.\u201d \u2014 Pastry chef from Japan<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This, in turn, triggered a barrage of calls from officials at American Career Opportunity and Global Associates. They called her \u2014 and her mother in Japan \u2014 incessantly, trying to convince her to go back to work at the restaurant. When it became clear that she wasn\u2019t going back, she said they tried to intimidate her into voluntarily returning to Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fearing that she\u2019d be deported, she fled her apartment and went into hiding. At first, she stayed at the house of a married couple she had befriended during her first week in Hawaii. Then, Xian of the Pacific Alliance found her space at a shelter run by a local church.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As far as the chef knows, the investigations at the State and Labor departments are still pending \u2014 more than three years later. Meanwhile, with the help of attorneys, she applied for a T-1 visa, which is set aside for trafficking victims. After about a year, her application was approved, enabling her to stay in the country and start working again.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ira Kurzban, general counsel for ASSE, says the company wasn\u2019t notified about the case until federal authorities got involved.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our perspective, we did everything we could possibly do as soon as we learned that there was a problem,\u201d Kurzban said, adding that the State Department \u201chas never said\u201d that the company engaged in \u201cany of the alleged bad acts that were claimed to have happened.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Officials from the State and Labor departments declined to comment on the case, citing privacy concerns.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Officials at American Career Opportunity did not respond to Civil Beat\u2019s request for comment. Global Associates and Hawaii Exchange Service could not be reached.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The chef is trying to move past her bitter experience. With Xian\u2019s help, she managed to recover the fees she had paid for her visa. And, last year, she got a cooking job at the Kahala Mall and has saved enough to move into her own apartment.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one thing she still can\u2019t shake: \u201cIt\u2019s been three years now, but, to this day, I\u2019m terrified of running into the restaurant owners. I\u2019m too scared; I still can\u2019t walk alone in Waikiki.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contrast this situation with the situation of “Trainees” and other visa statuses in Japan:<\/p>\n

HCB: It didn\u2019t take long for the 30-year-old Japanese pastry chef to realize that she was getting the raw end of the deal. She had arrived in Hawaii only days before, lured by a promise of pastry training as part of a cultural exchange program run by the U.S. State Department. The terms of her stay, under a visa known as J-1, were to spend the next 18 months working in the kitchen of a Waikiki restaurant \u2014 six days a week on 8-hour shifts beginning at 6:30 a.m. But she found herself toiling inside the kitchen in a shift that began at 5:30 a.m. and stretched to 12 hours \u2014 without any breaks or overtime pay.<\/p>\n

In 2012, a Japanese pastry chef arrived in Hawaii on a J-1 visa, only to find herself working at a Waikiki restaurant in sweatshop conditions. She requested her name and the name of the restaurant not be used. When she complained, she said no one lent a sympathetic ear. Initially, she said she was told that none of the restaurants in Hawaii offered any breaks. And, if she were to work on a shorter shift, her salary would have to be reduced accordingly. Unsatisfied, she went to her American sponsor organization and its Japanese contractors that had matched her up with the restaurant, but she said her pleas for their intervention were met with threats that her visa could be taken away. Soon, it dawned on her that she faced a Faustian choice: endure the grueling conditions at the restaurant or risk being deported for not showing up to work…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,5,16,11,48,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-business-practices","category-human-rights","category-labor-issues","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-shoe-on-the-other-foot-dept","category-tangents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}