Reply to Summary of new proposed AP rules from State Dep't

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I struggle feeling for parents who actually believe they have a right to exploit women from developing countries so that they can afford their lifestyle. They want a full time employee without any of the responsibilities of an employer. Guarantee they wouldn’t accept this attitude from their own employer. If you want a full time employee, you need to pay at least minimum wage of your state. I get that childcare is crazy expensive, but women of color aren’t responsible for being exploited to fix that problem. [/quote]
I agree with the above sentiment. There’s no evidence that au pairs come from a similar socioeconomic background as the American parents who contract them. So anyone here saying that is highly questionable.

Foreign babysitters are getting abused here on several levels. If they report to the agency that the father of the child is raping them when the mother isn’t there, they’ll get sent home without compensation for the remainder of their contract. If they get pregnant and don’t get an abortion, they’ll quickly get sent home. The State Department should have made available a 24/7 hotline for these foreign girls to report abuses.

Of course there are indeed some lovely relationships out there without abuse, but zero mandated statistics. The State Department should have instituted exit interviews with the au pairs, and identified which agencies are the most corrupted.

Most parents love the program because of the cheap cost and the fact that essentially, these foreign young people are often trapped in abusive situations with little recourse. Opportunities for a rematch are extremely limited, and never guaranteed.

My heart goes out to anyone who has been the victim of abuse.

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Eh. Is the cost actually cheap or is it just  about what you would pay for people of a certain experience level. We have a nanny that is 30/hr plus some guarantee overtime. But she’s a lot more experienced than an au pair. Once you include all of the costs that go along with the program (I personally think someone living in my house would be a drawback and not a selling point) and agency fees it doesn’t seem like it’s that cheap for a teen/college sitter which is what they are.

And it’s absurd to say that because someone can get raped without recourse you have to eliminate the whole program. Like are we going to ban girls from attending college as well? Get rid of the military? Heck, I think we may need to even do away with the Supreme Court on your logic…[/quote]

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