18, 19, 20 year old summer lifeguards from Europe. Where are they from? Who pays their rent?

[Anonymous]

Our old au pair did work and travel at the beach NJ before she was an au pair. She said it was very expensive to do the program. She had to work 2 40 hour a week jobs (hotel maid and in a taffy shop) to pay the fee and her living expenses and have a little left to send home. Being an au pair was better because she got living expenses included and never had to work over 45 hours. She was a great, hard working person. She just loved the US and wanted to be here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our old au pair did work and travel at the beach NJ before she was an au pair. She said it was very expensive to do the program. She had to work 2 40 hour a week jobs (hotel maid and in a taffy shop) to pay the fee and her living expenses and have a little left to send home. Being an au pair was better because she got living expenses included and never had to work over 45 hours. She was a great, hard working person. She just loved the US and wanted to be here.

The intent of the program isn't to support a family back home. It's a cultural exchange program for middle/upper middle class college kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These jobs should be going to local teens . It's appalling that in our neighborhood pool not one local teen is working as a lifeguard.

Let's be honest. Many middle and upper-class kids would rather not work if they don't have to or do internships, SSL hours, etc. I teach the lifeguarding course for many local pool companies and they go out of their way to try and recruit local teenagers. They go to many MCPS high schools and set up job fairs but kids just aren't flocking to the job like they were even ten years ago. Heck, even when I was a pool guard back in the late 90's the companies would comment how fewer and fewer kids were applying for lifeguarding jobs. It also doesn't help that our couch potato tendencies make it a challenge for some of the teens taking the course to pass the pre-requisite swim tests given the first night of class.

This county has over a million residents and it's hard to find teens to work? Or is it just that teens refuse to work nowadays (at least around here)?My dinky little home town has plenty of teens to work the city pools during the summer.

[Anonymous]

They come in on a guest worker visa. They staff our pools. Apartment buildings contract with a service to get the life guards. This year, the visa situation has been tough and there are complexes who are struggling to open their pools.

I can't believe you are worrying about whether your lifeguards have it too easy. It is a crap job.

[Anonymous]

We spend part of our summers in the Smoky Mountains and almost all the local restaurants employ these workers. I try to find out about them. Apparently they get their airfare here and then work very cheaply for a couple months. They also get two weeks off at the end to travel the U.S. I believe this is supported by the State Department as a way to build friendly relations with former Soviet bloc. We had a foreign student from Azerbaijan for a year and we feel like he is a great voice for us in the Muslim community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What countries are they mostly from?
Who pays their rent?
There is a apartment complex near my house where the rents start out at $2,000 a month and they are living there.
I know this because I always see them walking to and from the shopping center across the street carrying bags of groceries.
Summer lifeguarding must pay really well.

And you think lifeguards are EACH renting a one-bedroom apartment for $2000? Come on. You can't think of how they might double, triple or likely quadruple up???

So you mean to tell me they split the $2,000 ÷ 15?

That is a lot of people to share 1 single bathroom with.

I am poor. I live in a building with only one bedrooms and studios. A lot of the renters here are Mexican, and it's part of their culture to leave their front door open, for air (I assume). I have seen into a lot of apartments - they have two triple bunkbeds often. So six people sharing one studio. These are the dishwashers and busboys and cooks and fast food workers. It's totally normal when you come from a culture where three generations live together, to have 6-8 people in one small home.

If you live in dc md or va most likely they are from central america not mexico and its not part of a culture to leave the door open. The ratty apartment building probably has a cheap landlord who wont fix the ratty ac and they need air. Also 3 generations live together in indian, asian, italian households all the time. Its only in america its looked down upon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, yet another example of how immigration policy is really only in place to help businesses keep costs down. Whether it's illegal immigration or programs like this.

+ a million. People ask why teenagers aren't lifeguards anymore. I get that its because there aren't enough teenagers available to work in the summer, but I also think their wages haven't changed at all since I was probably a lifeguard, it was very good money when I was a teen, enough to support all the fun things I wanted to do during the year. Now, I bet you could $2000 even if you worked all summer. It's not worth it for teens!

I'm not sure this is the only reason teenagers aren't lifeguards. IRL and on here, all I hear from parents of teens is that they don't want their teens to work part-time jobs. The perception seems to be that it's a distraction from focusing on college. And the parents seem to think working won't add anything to their college applications. So they don't see the point of their teen working for minimum wage when they have money.

Personally, I think part-time jobs are good for teens. But I don't think that is the prevailing view.

So it isn't Europeans keeping American teens from working summer jobs; it's American parents.

[Anonymous]

Teens in the D.C. Area are at on travel teams and at SAT prep. They have no time to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teens in the D.C. Area are at on travel teams and at SAT prep. They have no time to work.

Pretty much. Suggested to a family member his son work, he looked at me like I had sprouted a second head. They are middle class (lower need, for the DC area) and his son is a good kid, but not at the top of his class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, yet another example of how immigration policy is really only in place to help businesses keep costs down. Whether it's illegal immigration or programs like this.

+ a million. People ask why teenagers aren't lifeguards anymore. I get that its because there aren't enough teenagers available to work in the summer, but I also think their wages haven't changed at all since I was probably a lifeguard, it was very good money when I was a teen, enough to support all the fun things I wanted to do during the year. Now, I bet you could $2000 even if you worked all summer. It's not worth it for teens!

I'm not sure this is the only reason teenagers aren't lifeguards. IRL and on here, all I hear from parents of teens is that they don't want their teens to work part-time jobs. The perception seems to be that it's a distraction from focusing on college. And the parents seem to think working won't add anything to their college applications. So they don't see the point of their teen working for minimum wage when they have money.

Personally, I think part-time jobs are good for teens. But I don't think that is the prevailing view.

So it isn't Europeans keeping American teens from working summer jobs; it's American parents.

This! I've asked multiple co workers with teens if their teens have jobs. The response is always that there's no time for a job, that school is the job, that AP classes and internships to get ahead , plus travel sports that will hopefully turn into scholarships take all of their precious time.

But my local pool has all local teens working at it. MoCo. So some still do let their teens work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What countries are they mostly from?
Who pays their rent?
There is a apartment complex near my house where the rents start out at $2,000 a month and they are living there.
I know this because I always see them walking to and from the shopping center across the street carrying bags of groceries.
Summer lifeguarding must pay really well.

They are packed in that $2000 apartment like flies. Seriously. They are working long hours and basically just crash there to sleep and eat a sandwich.

[Anonymous]

My husband worked as a guard in Wisconsin Dells over summer breaks. Crappy azz rentals where you went to sleep and shower, with several other lifeguards. Rentals are arranged by the waterparks and it ain't the Ritz. Now a huge percentage of these guard jobs are filled by kids from the Ukraine, Croatia, Poland, etc with the same living situation.
My sister still lives in WI, near the Dells and her college age son quit his guarding job b/c he wasn't able to converse with any of his co-workers, drove him crazy. That's how tourist traps staff their positions now, and it's moving into the local arena too

[Anonymous]

Our pool has members' kids or local kids as lifeguards. So do most of the private swim clubs in the area. The condo and apartment complexes are the ones that hire the international students to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, yet another example of how immigration policy is really only in place to help businesses keep costs down. Whether it's illegal immigration or programs like this.

+ a million. People ask why teenagers aren't lifeguards anymore. I get that its because there aren't enough teenagers available to work in the summer, but I also think their wages haven't changed at all since I was probably a lifeguard, it was very good money when I was a teen, enough to support all the fun things I wanted to do during the year. Now, I bet you could $2000 even if you worked all summer. It's not worth it for teens!

I'm not sure this is the only reason teenagers aren't lifeguards. IRL and on here, all I hear from parents of teens is that they don't want their teens to work part-time jobs. The perception seems to be that it's a distraction from focusing on college. And the parents seem to think working won't add anything to their college applications. So they don't see the point of their teen working for minimum wage when they have money.

Personally, I think part-time jobs are good for teens. But I don't think that is the prevailing view.

So it isn't Europeans keeping American teens from working summer jobs; it's American parents.

This is such nonsense. (not that you're espousing it) I'm the PP whose HHI is over $700k--they don't "need" the money, in that sense. But they need to understand how much work it requires to earn a living, to make a paycheck, how long it takes to make $20 that you blow in a heartbeat at a restaurant. Those are life lessons, and help them with an appreciation for many jobs that people have on which they are trying to support familiies. That's much more important than yet another SAT prep course. My boys also do that. They play sports at a very high level. They do all the things you hear about here on DCUM that are expected of kids in their position, but I.will.not.rear another generation of entitled spoiled brats in a bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, yet another example of how immigration policy is really only in place to help businesses keep costs down. Whether it's illegal immigration or programs like this.

+ a million. People ask why teenagers aren't lifeguards anymore. I get that its because there aren't enough teenagers available to work in the summer, but I also think their wages haven't changed at all since I was probably a lifeguard, it was very good money when I was a teen, enough to support all the fun things I wanted to do during the year. Now, I bet you could $2000 even if you worked all summer. It's not worth it for teens!

I'm not sure this is the only reason teenagers aren't lifeguards. IRL and on here, all I hear from parents of teens is that they don't want their teens to work part-time jobs. The perception seems to be that it's a distraction from focusing on college. And the parents seem to think working won't add anything to their college applications. So they don't see the point of their teen working for minimum wage when they have money.

Personally, I think part-time jobs are good for teens. But I don't think that is the prevailing view.

So it isn't Europeans keeping American teens from working summer jobs; it's American parents.

This! I've asked multiple co workers with teens if their teens have jobs. The response is always that there's no time for a job, that school is the job, that AP classes and internships to get ahead , plus travel sports that will hopefully turn into scholarships take all of their precious time.

But my local pool has all local teens working at it. MoCo. So some still do let their teens work.

Yes. I live in McLean, and plenty of these working teens have parents withe very high six and seven figure incomes. Some people want their kids to understand what it is like to work, even if it is just a job over the summer.