Jobs lost and return home prohibited by the coronavirus, J-1 students scramble to survive
Jean Pierre Campoverde envisioned days at the ocean and evenings in bars and nightclubs during his two months in Myrtle Beach, meeting young women throughout the United States’ spring break period.
“We thought we were going to be in a cool situation,” Campoverde said. “We were going to be with single ladies at the beach, you know. But right now this is [messed] up. Nothing about that is happening right now.”
“Everywhere is closed,” added Kevin Arana.
The two 21-year-olds are among a group of 22 college students from Ecuador who are in Myrtle Beach as part of the J-1 student visa program, which is utilized by Grand Strand businesses to fill job openings during the spring and summer tourism seasons.
Rather than what they anticipated, the Ecuadorians instead find themselves in the midst of a global coronavirus pandemic in a foreign country, laid off from their scheduled jobs and forbidden to return home because of travel restrictions.
“My biggest concern is if I can go back home,” Noan Acosta said. “The contract ends May 2nd. If I don’t have a job, if I don’t have a place to live, what shall I do?”
The J-1 program, as it generally pertains to Myrtle Beach, allows college students from foreign countries to visit the U.S. to work and travel for up to four months during their summer break.
Participants are supposed to have sufficient English skills and a prearranged job. Countries have different applicable dates, and the southern coastal areas of Ecuador come from mid-February to early May.
Groups from multiple countries are in Myrtle Beach now, with many more scheduled through the summer.
“A lot of people are panicking. All the people who have businesses don’t know what they’re going to do with the J-1 students coming in,” said Cory Wagner, owner of Sunfun Vacation Rentals, which houses up to 400 per year and has been involved in the J-1 program for about 20 years. “All the people that have kids that are going to stay with them or kids going to work for them, they’re all panicking right now.”
The students from Ecuador said they paid $2,000 each to Texas-based sponsor Alliance Abroad Group, which said Wednesday via email that it provides guidance, information and support, lines up lodging and jobs in the hospitality industry, and provides a form of travel insurance to its traveling students.
Many of the Ecuadorian students had jobs at Westgate Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort and they arrived around March 2 ready to work, but their jobs didn’t start for a week. So they had to pay a $300 housing deposit and the first week’s rent of $110 before they began those jobs, and found interim part-time jobs at restaurants in the meantime.
“At first we didn’t know what we were going to do,” Campoverde said. “We didn’t have any money, we couldn’t pay the rent and we were afraid because of the coronavirus.”
They said they worked for one week at Westgate before they were laid off because of COVID-19.
Acosta said he and a few other students were offered work in the Outer Banks, where their Alliance Abroad outreach coordinator is based, but they didn’t want to move.
They were panicked because, “we don’t have another job to pay the rent or some other things we need,” Acosta said. “And also we can’t go back home because of the coronavirus because in our country they set up regulations that nobody can leave and nobody can enter. So it was a really, really complex situation.”
With the help of Wagner, who is the landlord of the condos and apartments where the students are staying in Myrtle Beach, and their Alliance liaison they were able to scramble and find jobs, mostly at either Walmart or Food Lion locations stocking shelves or cleaning.
The students said they are paid between $9.50 and $12 per hour at the stores.
They are concerned about getting the coronavirus when they interact with customers who have questions, and it would likely spread quickly among them as they’re in tight quarters in their housing with at least six sleeping in bunk beds in two-bedroom apartments.
“We are dealing with customers every day, they’re asking for some products in the aisles that they’re looking for, so I just keep that good distance to tell them where it is,” Acosta said.
Realizing the desperate situation the students have been in, Wagner has helped in other ways as well, buying the group pizza two or three times a week and transporting them to and from work, to buy bikes and for important errands.
He has also temporarily decreased rent per student from $110 each week to $75.
“I do whatever I can to help the kids,” Wagner said. “I feel sorry for them because if my kids were in their country I’d hope their parents would do the same thing I do for them. They’re all good kids.
“I told their sponsor when they didn’t have jobs, I said if they don’t have jobs they can stay here for free. I’m not going to kick them out.”
The group has had other challenges. Acosta has a dental issue involving swelling and pain but he hasn’t been able to find a medical clinic that will take his insurance, so he has treated it by taking a pharmacist’s advice for over-the-counter medications.
Sebastian Munoz said he hasn’t received payment yet from Westgate on a card that was supposed to be uploaded with his wages.
Despite the group’s trying circumstances, Acosta said he has enjoyed the people he has met in Myrtle Beach, some helping him when needed.
Ecuador reported 1,966 cases of coronavirus and 62 deaths through the weekend, according to a Reuters article, which confirmed flights for Ecuadorians stranded abroad and seeking a return have been suspended. Ecuador has closed its borders and the country’s airports are closed until at least April 15.
Some of the students have received emails and/or had contact with the Ecuador Consulate in Chicago and were told the priority for getting nationals back into the country are the elderly, those with special needs or handicaps, and children traveling alone.
Their return flights are scheduled between early May and early June, but they aren’t sure when they will return to their home country if restrictions persist after their scheduled departure dates.
“Right now the situation is very complicated,” Campoverde said. “We don’t know how long we’ll be here. We probably won’t be able to go home in May, and we may not be able to go home until June or July, and with our visa we don’t know what’s going to happen. Seriously, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Their situations are made worse because some of their parents are now out of work as Ecuador is largely shut down to combat the coronavirus.
“The thing that’s most important for us is the situation in our country,” Arana said.
Julian de Los Rios, an Alliance Abroad global development director, said in an email Wednesday that the company was in contact with government officials to help secure alternate flights for the students if necessary.
The students expect to go into a forced 14-day quarantine when they are able to return to Ecuador, whenever that is.
“Another thing that’s really sad is they don’t realize how serious it is,” Wagner said. “If they catch the coronavirus, they’re all not going home.”
