Stopping Exploitation of Migrant Workers

Migrant workers have been abused ever since the beginning. There have been attempts to strike and revolt, but it has never been very successful. In “It’s Time to End Worker Exploitation” by Linda Chavez-Thompson exposes the nonexistent rights and abuse of the foreign guest workers, but fails to delve deeper into the details of the problems and to find a solution to stop exploitation. The workers’ wages are so low that the job becomes a vicious cycle with little to no chance of coming out with any benefit or profits, they have horrible health care and health conditions in which they have to work under, and even worse, foreign born workers are treated worse than scum on the bottom of a shoe, not able to even stand up for their own rights without suffering harsher consequences than deserved.

The H-2A and H-2B visa programs, formerly known as the “bracero” program, gives out the permit that allows foreign workers to try to make a living for their family working in an agricultural field, construction, and almost anything that involves intense manual labor under minimal supervision by the government. Chavez- Thompson wrote “workers typically borrow large amounts of money to pay travel expenses, fees and even bribes to recruiters. That means that before they even begin to work, they are indebted”. This is true in many cases and the author supports this with plenty of evidence to sway an audience. In the article “Migrant Worker Abuse Detailed in Amnesty International Report on Malaysia” by Putri Prameshwari, a complaint was made and released to the press about how she was not given a permit after a year of getting monthly deductions from her paycheck. The fees alone are roughly twenty five hundred dollars for a position as a seasonal worker, which is the yearly income of an average Guatemalan, and Thai migrant workers sometimes pay up to ten thousand dollars or more just to work for lower wages than they expected. Chavez-Thompson never includes the expectation of the