Summer Work Travel (SWT) program
panel discussionCheap Labor as Cultural Exchange: The $100 Million Work Travel IndustryTuesday, March 13, 2012 at 9 a.m.Murrow RoomNational Press Club
- has become a cheap-labor program under the guise of cultural exchange;
- has monetized a foreign policy initiative, creating a multi-million dollar SWT industry that generates enormous profits under the mantle of public diplomacy and presses for continual expansion around globe;
- is so dominated by the State Department’s concerns about international relations that it has become blind to the negative effects at home;
- displaces young Americans from the workplace at a time of record levels of youth unemployment;
- provides incentives for employers to bypass American workers by exempting SWT employers from taxes that apply to employment of Americans. Employers also don’t have to worry about providing health insurance, since SWT students are required to buy it for themselves;
- depends upon young foreigners who must spend several thousand dollars in fees, travel costs, and health insurance. As a result, many are virtually indentured to U.S. employers and are therefore unable to challenge low pay and poor working and housing conditions;
- is not truly an exchange program because it lacks reciprocity, since a negligible number of young Americans find overseas employment through the SWT sponsoring agencies.
Jerry Kammer
Sarah Ann Smith
Jeff Collins
Mark Krikorian
Topics: J-1 Nonimmigrant Visa Program