Fewer jobs for european students this summer

Beyond the cramped living quarters, complaints have arisen about employers not paying workers what they're owed, or students overstaying their visas and joining the country's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants.

Dan Smith, who runs the At The Beach Web site with a guide for international students, said some student workers are subjected to "slave conditions."

"A lot of employers would not ask the same thing of American students," he said. "The kids don't know their rights, and even if they complained, the company would fire them because they would figure there are plenty more kids coming in the door every day looking for a job."

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report from October 2005 found the J-1 program could be "misused as an employment program" and that there was a risk of exchange participants "being exploited, resulting in negative experiences, which could undermine the purposes of the programs."

Further, the report said, there is little oversight or tracking of visitors' arrivals and departures to assess whether students are returning when their visas expire.

Of all J-1 visa recipients in 2003, an estimated 24 percent were "potential overstays," according to the GAO report.

Merchant said she has heard of some workers trying to get green cards, or leaving Delaware at the end of the summer to look for work illegally.

But for the most part, she said, they return home with their hard-earned money to finish their schooling.

Kuzmina said the program was the only way she'd ever have been able to visit the United States.

"I've learned a lot of new words, like 'rag,' and 'twisted' and 'scoops,' " said Kuzmina, whose second job is at Starkey's Cones. "I'm having fun, sure, and I'm earning good money. I wanted to travel, and now I am."

source: delmarvanow.com