"Slave" poster - who are you??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Frank gets $8/week for mowing his parents' lawn for an hour as allowance, NOT really pay."

Exactly my point. The stipend is an "allowance" because like Frank, AP is living in "parents" home with food, utilities, phone, car, etc, paid for. When Frank mows the neighbor's lawn and gets $16/hour, he doesn't move in with his neighbors, drive their car, etc.

"Frank is not necessarily reliable because he might skip a week for playing baseball because he has NOT signed a contract with terms setting out his allowance."

Yes, I agree here that in theory AP is more reliable than Frank. However, AP is often an inexperienced young woman who needs a great deal of training, instructions, follow-up, etc versus a professional live-out nanny. APs "reliability" is extremely relative (ask any HP who has hosted several APs). And let's be honest about the "contract"...in an unreliable AP situation, HP is responsible for dealing with mediation and housing AP for 2 weeks versus in the situation of "unreliable Frank", the neighbor can fire him on the spot.

Contracts mean nothing. AP can just up and leave with no notice and no financial or legal consequence ... and then get a chance to rematch with another HF. Nothing to loose from the AP side.

[Anonymous]

You have to understand that the vast majority of American families DO NOT WANT some foreign person living with them. This sounds like hell to most of my friends. Host families (like me) are a very unique and rare group of people who are willing to open their home to host a complete stranger. Some days I question what the heck I was thinking. Even most great host families I know think "I can't wait to get my house back someday"

Only19,000 families that are in the program.
https://j1visa.state.gov/basics/facts-and-figures/participant-and-sponsor-totals/
This pales in comparison to the 300,000 other J-1 visas issued, which are more about cheap labor.

There are like 10 times the number of APs wanting to live with a family in America than there are families who want them.

The opposite is true for the H1b visas. The U.S. limits the amount of these to 65,000/year, because there are so many American companies who do want cheap labor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Frank gets $8/week for mowing his parents' lawn for an hour as allowance, NOT really pay."

Exactly my point. The stipend is an "allowance" because like Frank, AP is living in "parents" home with food, utilities, phone, car, etc, paid for. When Frank mows the neighbor's lawn and gets $16/hour, he doesn't move in with his neighbors, drive their car, etc.

"Frank is not necessarily reliable because he might skip a week for playing baseball because he has NOT signed a contract with terms setting out his allowance."

Yes, I agree here that in theory AP is more reliable than Frank. However, AP is often an inexperienced young woman who needs a great deal of training, instructions, follow-up, etc versus a professional live-out nanny. APs "reliability" is extremely relative (ask any HP who has hosted several APs). And let's be honest about the "contract"...in an unreliable AP situation, HP is responsible for dealing with mediation and housing AP for 2 weeks versus in the situation of "unreliable Frank", the neighbor can fire him on the spot.

Contracts mean nothing. AP can just up and leave with no notice and no financial or legal consequence ... and then get a chance to rematch with another HF. Nothing to loose from the AP side.

Exactly. I had one do just that. No repercussions for them!!

[Anonymous]

There are repercussions.
Au Pair has to pay for ticket back to her country.
Au Pair doesnt have a chance to use travel month to actually visit USA.
Automatically she have to stay-time required to earn money and save it for ticket back to country or trips.

HP are playing on time:
Dividing money for education, or forgetting... to pay it
Dividing vacations,
Promissing stuff.

[Anonymous]

"HP are playing on time:
Dividing money for education, or forgetting... to pay it
Dividing vacations,
Promissing stuff."

What? Dividing money for education? I don't know what this means. It's $500 per year. Most HPs pay $250 per class. Yes, AP has to pay the difference. APs are not on a full scholarship program.

What? Dividing vacations?

Promising stuff? Yes, HPs make promises they don't keep (hours, use of car, etc.). APs also make promises that are not true (driving experience, childcare experience, desire to explore USA, etc)

[Anonymous]

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