Fewer jobs for european students this summer
Maria Kuzmina heard tales of Delaware back in her native Russia.
She thought the beaches sounded beautiful, the nightlife thrilling, and she was excited to be so close to New York City and Washington -- places she was familiar with only on television.
But mostly, it was the siren call of money to be made working on the boardwalk and in the outlet stores at Rehoboth Beach that prompted her to come to the United States this summer on a J-1 cultural exchange visa.
"I can't decide if I want a laptop or an iPhone or if I want to save my money to buy a car in Russia," said Kuzmina, a 20-year-old studying computational linguistics. "Because in the future I will not have an opportunity like this again. In Russia, I'd have to work two or three years, and it's hard to find a good job."
Regular visitors to Delaware's beaches know that more often than not, come summer, the employee serving them ice cream or assisting them in a dressing room will be speaking with a foreign accent. Local drivers mark the start of summer by the appearance of hundreds of helmetless students bicycling to and from their jobs on the beach.
Each summer, about 1,500 foreign students, most from eastern European countries, arrive in the Rehoboth Beach area prepared to work two or three summer jobs. They fill a seasonal niche in Delaware's labor market brought on by the millions of tourists from up and down the East Coast who descend on the beaches from May through September.
Created through the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, the J-1 exchange visitor program is supposed to encourage cultural understanding between the United States and the rest of the world.
Critics contend the summer work, travel and trainee program, which last year brought more than 150,000 exchange visitors to the United States, has morphed into an unregulated labor visa for the service sector that adds to illegal immigration.
Beach-area employers acknowledge some companies might take advantage of the student workers but, they said, the exchange program is what allows them to keep their doors open.
Even with the economy hovering on the verge of recession, and gas prices continuing to break records and dampen tourism, employers say the visiting workers from Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere are critical, especially as the beach season hits its stride this Fourth of July weekend.
Still, nationwide, there are fewer jobs for such students this summer than last.
The Council on International Educational Exchange, a Maine-based nonprofit that acts as one of the nation's largest sponsors of J-1 visas, typically places 30,000 to 35,000 foreign students with U.S. employers each year.
This year, the council brought only 682 students to Delaware, down from 786 last year.
"What we're hearing from the large hotels and areas with high levels of tourism with a lot of students working there, is not that they don't need anyone, but they're having to cut back their hours," said Melvin Harmon, council spokesman. "This year, because of the economy, employers don't need as many students as they hired, so we're having to help students find other employment."
At Funland on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk, about half of the 109 employees are J-1 students, coming from 12 countries, said Christopher Darr, personnel manager.
That's the same as in years past, but business is off this summer, he said, so he's had to ask employees to volunteer to work fewer hours.
"Luckily, with this many employees, you can usually find a couple people who want an extra day off," he said. After making a commitment to the foreign students, he doesn't want to cut back their hours, he said.
"But there are those employers who have done that, who have just said they'll pull an extra shift themselves," Darr said. "There's probably two or three people a day who walk in with J-1 visas looking for a job."
