J-What? Foreign Students Work Their Way into Carolina Culture

0College students pack the seats of Seacoast Vineyard Church in Myrtle Beach. They stare up at the pulpit in awe. They take selfies and wave friends over to sit by them. Myrtle Beach Police Detective Pete Woods paces the front of the church and walks the aisles as he preaches to them about everything he thinks they’ll need to know to keep them safe.

It’s a balmy June morning. More students stream in the church. These are just a small fraction of the more than 4,000 student-workers filtering through the Grand Strand job market from the J-1 visa Summer Work Travel Program (SWT). Young foreigners stay in the U.S. for up to four months as they work, travel and experience American culture.

It sounds idyllic, but the journey of the J1 student-worker can be rife with peril because the American experience isn’t always idyllic. Sometimes, the profit line gets in the way of humanity. Young visitors can hit walls – problems with their visas or passports, unhelpful or maleficent sponsors, abusive or neglectful employers, criminals marking them as easy prey, riding bikes and walking on unknown roads (often after late shifts) and landlords packing them into unsafe rooms like livestock and overcharging them. Not to mention, all the glares and comments they receive from locals because English isn’t their first language.

“Amy Prock [assistant chief of the Myrtle Beach Police Department] started these orientations four years ago after we were seeing students burglarized and landlords warehousing these kids by the hundreds,” says Woods after his speech. “Since we’ve been doing it, the awareness has been staggering. Some of these kids were scared to approach American police, but now, we’ve broken through.”

The orientations bring together services addressing the problems J1 student-workers might face during their visit. Essentially a meet-and-greet, they can get necessary paperwork done and learn some much needed survival information. Police and lifeguards talk about safety. Sponsors introduce themselves. Representatives from public transit hand out bus passes. Banking centers offer help on opening bank accounts. Representatives from the Southern Poverty Law Center discuss their services concerning problems with employers or landlords. The office of social security comes over to issue numbers.

“Social security is a big draw here. Can you imagine trying to get all these kids into a small office over in Conway? It would be a nightmare.” Woods says as we watch the students apply for their new social security numbers. “Here, they have all these services at their disposal. They meet people from the church. Plus, they get to meet each other and make friends.”

These young people do look happy, all of them shuffling around with big smiles. Some speak in broken English. Some speak fluently with distinct accents. Everyone I speak to is sure their experiences will change their lives. They’re probably right. We only hope it’s for the best.

Lies can travel halfway around the world, while truth is stuck at baggage claims.

Established in the 1960s, the U.S. State Department developed SWT with the intent of spreading the America Way across the globe. For over 50 years, it’s worked. In the last decade, over 100,000 young people, ages 18 to 30, leave homes and universities around the world to work and soak up the red, white and blue way of life.

America marketed itself as the beautiful, shiny city on a hill, and it worked. America has become a self-serve utopia – you can get anything you want if you work hard enough for it. In some cases, this has been and can be true.

But there is also something very American about overcoming a stacked deck, and in many situations, the very first card seems to be rigged when it comes to J1 student-workers. As with many governmental services, the state department has outsourced recruitment and sponsorship of the program over to privately-owned companies to act as middlemen. SWT participation soared from 20,000 in 1996 to more than 150,000 in 2008.

When the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) launches outreach efforts in Myrtle Beach, they hear the same issues about sponsors as they hear across the south. “False promises from recruiters and sponsors who farm these workers out to employers who don’t care about them,” says Meredith Stewart, an attorney with SPLC. “And when they try to voice their concerns, their employers and sponsors are unresponsive.”

“In seasons past, we’ve had 20 to 30 students lured here by fake sponsors and fake jobs,” says Woods. “They get to the Myrtle Beach Airport and they’re stranded.”

That’s 20 to 30 young people standing in the Myrtle Beach Airport who have just been conned out of thousands of dollars. This is their American experience.

“Sponsors can be for-profit or nonprofit businesses or individuals, any entity acting as a middleman, facilitating in the recruiting, hiring process, transportation and employment of J1’s. They’re supposed to oversee the entire process.” Stewart says. “Because they’re in this state department role, sponsors are supposed to be regulating and monitoring the experience of these J1 workers, but often the sponsors are in an office in another state.”

Sadly, this was the case last year after a J1 student-worker died while here on the Grand Strand.

“We couldn’t find her sponsor. It took us six weeks to notify her parents that she’d died,” Woods had told the student-workers at the church. “Know your sponsors. Make a copy of your passports and keep it with you all the time. Write your sponsor’s name and contact info on it.”

People tend to fall through the cracks when no one is watching. When you bring in hundreds of thousands of bright-eyed, young foreigners and drop them into bustling tourist communities without any monitoring at all, do we not expect some tragedy?

In 2011, when Hillary Clinton was still secretary of state, she called for an “extensive and thorough review” of SWT because of repeated cases of exploitation and labor abuse within the program.

SPLC first got involved with SWT cases back in the 2000’s, but the cases began to increase in 2011.

“We’ve never had a case of human trafficking in the Myrtle Beach area, but trafficking can be defined as workers induced to work by physical or economical harm,” says Stewart. “That economical debt can come in the form of an owed debt. A lot of times, J1’s still owe fees to recruiters and sponsors, and they spend their first couple of weeks when they get here paying off those debts.”

Fees and charges to student-workers used to be sort of a standard practice before these privately-owned middlemen came into the picture, but after, the fees increased exponentially to the point of broken. For example, one of the countries a lot of these students come from is Moldova. The average gross salary for Moldova is $2,940. A typical amount of fees a sponsor charges is about $3,000.

But as Stewart tells us, “Every sponsor has a different fee schedule and these fees aren’t usually public.”

Over the past decade, hundreds of millions of dollars have been raked-in nationally by sponsors. This is not counting employers and landlords.

There is no substitute for hard work, unless you can get some else to do it.

Back in the church, Woods tells the students, “If you work 40 hours, you get paid for 40 hours. You’re on American soil now. You have all the rights of an American citizen.”

If you’re out and about on the Grand Strand this summer, you’re going to come into contact with a J1 student-worker. They’re at hotels, beachwear stores, restaurants, novelty shops, tourist attractions and lifeguard stands.

“We do a Skype interview with these kids just to make sure they speak solid English because they’re working in emergency services. They get a week’s worth of training and get an umbrella certification of American Red Cross and United States Lifesaving Association (U.S.L.A.),” says Donnie Constransitch, beach patrol and lifeguard coordinator for the North Myrtle Beach Ocean Lifeguard and Rescue.

American businesses do get cheaper labor by hiring J1 student-workers. On average, employers save 8 percent by hiring them because employers don't have to pay benefits like Medicare, Social Security and unemployment taxes. It would seem like a no-brainer that greedy business would only hire J1’s.

But wait. Because of the previously mentioned review, the state department revamped the program a bit in 2012. The visa numbers scaled back. Provisions protecting American workers were installed. If employers have had layoffs within the last 120 days or they have employees on strike, they can no longer participate in the program. Under the new rules, employers also have to guarantee the jobs they're filling with J1 students are seasonal and temporary.

“They get paid, and they get the experience. We get reliable, hard workers. You cannot give these kids enough hours,” says Constransitch. “They ride their bikes to work, rain or shine. I work with both American and foreign kids, and I like working with both and mentoring both, but American kids go back to school in the second week of August. The J1’s work into September, and then, they travel.”

Laura Finnegan, a J1 student-worker from Ireland, will be waiting tables this summer. She doesn’t really care about the money. “I care about the experience and the memory,” she says. “I want to travel and meet new people, if the money makes that possible, then OK.”

Katie Reilly, also from Ireland, can’t wait to start her new job at a candy store. “We don’t really have candy stores like they have here, back in Ireland,” she says. Reilly has larger goals in mind than money. “I want to be more independent. I’ve never stayed away this long.”

Constransitch has worked beach patrol for 10 years and spent a lot of time with many J1’s. He’s spent his off-hours with them. He helped send a couple of brothers back to Bulgaria in the middle of the season after their father had a heart attack.

“When I first started working with them, they saw me with my gun and uniform, and they got intimidated,” says Constransitch. “I told them, I’m a police officer, but I’m also a human being who wants to help people. Next thing you know, we’re laughing and joking together. I trust them, and I think they trust me.”

This seems like the perfect world – the win-win. American labor gets taken care. J1’s get American culture. Employers get great employees to help handle the temporary boom of tourist season. Some save some money. Some make some money. Are we finally starting to get this right?

Stewart reminds me, just because an abuse isn’t reported doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

Give a landlord an inch, and he’ll stuff a bunch of people into an unsafe room.

In 2013, the Fire Marshal temporarily closed down the Calypso Motor Inn for safety concerns in J1 student-worker rooms and common areas. Overcrowded rooms without functioning smoke alarms are never a winning combination. A stairwell was deemed unsafe. J1’s claimed wall outlets sparked, and curtains were taped to the wall, so no one could see in. They claimed no one ever cleaned the rooms.

They were charged $8 per night to stay. After the Fire Marshall shut down the motel, the owner kicked them out and refused to give back their security deposit.

“We’d had problems with the Calypso before,” Woods says. “The kids came to us and reported their problems with management.”

One could say the Calypso debacle is proof of the successfulness of Myrtle Beach’s orientation program. The J1’s came to authorities in June, early in the season. They had names and faces of people to talk to about the problem.

The Calypso was an extreme, but the housing problem hasn’t stopped. I talked to one student after another — a lot of them lived with five or six roommates in one or two bedrooms, each paying $75 or $80 a week in rent.

Vlad Toma is from Romania. Back home, he’s studying statistics. He’ll be waiting tables here until mid-October. While he’s here, he’ll be living in North Myrtle Beach with six roommates in a two bedroom apartment.

“There’s someone from Thailand, Turkey, some Romanians, a Slovakia or Slovenia, I can’t remember, and an American is in there too,” he says.

When I ask Toma why he wanted to come here and live with all these people, he jumped into the answer. “My sister went to work and travel, and I wanted the same thing. I want to take some money back to Romania. I want to visit Miami and New York.” He smiles. “I want to live the American dream.”

“Talk to your sponsors, they usually know the bad landlords,” Woods told the students earlier. “A bad landlord will tell you it’s the custom to have 10 people in a room. That’s not true.”

“We also see a lot of housing issues. I’ve seen J1’s living in some pretty atrocious conditions, from overcrowded to the isolated,” says Stewart. “Sponsors should be getting to know landlords and finding out about areas where their workers will be living.”

J1’s are still overcharged for crappy living conditions around town every year, but these kids don’t want to make waves, and they don’t want to get kicked out of their temporary homes.

“For any town to take in this many kids, housing is always going to be a problem,” Woods says. “Some landlords are going to take advantage and put bunk-beds in their rooms to pack them in.”

But it’s not all bad. David Kazaryan, a 21-year-old Russian, has two roommates so far. “My roommates are from Turkey and Jordan. We only speak in English. It’s the only international language we share,” he says. “I came here to meet new friends and learn about these new cultures and the American culture.”

Reilly from the candy store tells me she shares a room with six other people. “It’s crowded. There’s luggage everywhere,” she laughs. But she seems to find a silver lining in the displaced Irish population. “There are loads of us from the same town in Ireland, staying at the same place, but we didn’t know each other back home. Now, we can go back home and all be friends.”

It’s good to have friends, whether here or there. They’ll need all the friends they can get.

A young man approached Woods and I to borrow a pen at the back of the church. Woods asked where he’s from.

“Romania,” the young man answered.

“Where are you staying while you’re here?” Woods asked.

“Greens Boulevard,” the young man replied.

Woods patted his shoulder as he returned the pen. Woods turns back to me and said. “I cringe when I hear that.”

Information is power, but information can be scary as hell.

“The first week of the season, we had a student robbed out on Joe White Boulevard.” Woods paces an aisle of the church. “Because she knew how to call 911 and we had good cameras on that road, that criminal is in jail right now.”

Woods will later tell me, “These kids get targeted by American and foreign criminals.”

We stand watching them buzz about the church, finishing up paperwork, laughing with friends.

“These are 19- to 23-year-old kids. For most of them, English is their third language,” Woods says. “That’s why I tell them to know their sponsors. When it’s 2 a.m. and they’re a crime victim, they’re not going to understand a rookie cop asking them questions, but if you say it enough, they might understand, who’s your sponsor?”

Woods and the team at the orientation want to make sure these foreign youth are prepared so they take their time with them. “Don’t carry your passport with you. Criminals want your passport,” Woods says to the crowd. He acts like he’s stealing a young woman’s purse to explain how 911 works. He’s affable. The kids laugh. He tells them to write down the serial numbers from the electronics they buy and keep them with your passports. He says, “Don’t hide your money in your suitcase or under your mattress. American banks will hold it and protect it for you.”

Guest speakers like police officer Jim Allen tell the J1’s that their most reliable transportation is probably bicycles. “Some people may try to rent you a bike for $200, but your best bet is to go to Walmart or Target and buy one for $75,” Allen says. “After you buy one, put your name on it, in case it’s stolen.”

In 2013, more than 90 percent of bicycle crashes in Myrtle Beach involved J1’s. “We’ve had nine bike fatalities in the J1 program,” Allen says. He adds, “Don’t walk or ride bikes on Highway 501…Always walk in groups…I know it’s not fashion friendly, but wear something bright at night.”

“Every year, some students want to go to the beach without clothes. It’s not worth it. It will get you a $500 fine, plus it’s an embarrassment to you and your families back home,” says Woods. “And if you don’t know how to swim, don’t go swimming in the ocean. Fourteen people drown a year here.”

Woods addresses the students in a call and response section. “If a car pulls up and tells you they’ll take you where you want to go for $10, do you get it the car?”

The crowd shouts, “No.”

Woods says, “If someone asks you if you have change for a hundred dollar bill, what do you say?”

The crowd shouts, “No.”

“That’s right,” Woods nods his head. “$100 bills are the most counterfeited bills in Myrtle Beach.”

This is Woods’ fourth year preaching the same sermon. Every summer, week after week, the congregations seem receptive. “They’re part of our culture,” he says. “They should feel welcome.”

As I’m leaving, I run into Vlad Toma from Romania. He needs me to call him a cab. After I make the call, I wait with him. I ask him how he likes America so far.

“People here are really nice. Nicer than in my country,” says Toma. “When I got here, people in the airport smiled and greeted me. The person who drove my cab got out and made sure I was at the right place and made sure I was safe.”

Maybe, these kids are getting the American experience in their travels. They are privy to the unsafe, unsavory, inhumane way we can sometimes treat each other. But they also get to see our generous nature and our open arms.

This story was originally published July 5, 2016 at 3:17 PM with the headline "J-What? Foreign Students Work Their Way into Carolina Culture."