By Southern Poverty Law Center
February 11, 2014
Laura Franco and her sister thought they had found a life-changing opportunity.
After meeting with a labor recruiter and spending hours browsing through a website, both were convinced that leaving the Dominican Republic to work in Tennessee as part of the U.S. State Department’s cultural exchange program would be a great way to spend their summer break from college in 2012.
According to the recruiter, the sisters would clean rooms in a “fancy hotel” where room and board would be free. The sisters saw it as an opportunity to improve their English and meet people from other cultures – a true cultural exchange.
When they arrived in Tennessee, they found a far different reality. They didn’t receive free room and board at a fancy hotel. Instead, they were ordered to sleep with the horses in the resort’s stables. And, in addition to cleaning hotel rooms, they were expected to tend to the horses and maintain the stables.
Laura and her sister are not alone. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-report-state-department-cultural-exchange-program-hijacked-by-us-employers-us
Read the full report:
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/Culture-Shock
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