A federally provided cultural exchange program designed to build international understanding and provide international students with a sense of the United States was recently exposed as abusive and perhaps cruel by a group of disenfranchised exchange students participating in the program in Palmyra, Pa.
After paying amounts of up to $6,000 to participate in the program, 200 students went on strike after being placed in a grueling hard labor job at a Hershey packing plant. They worked arduous night shifts on production lines, lifted boxes as heavy as 60 pounds and were severely underpaid and undercompensated for unexpected extra costs of housing, transportation and other factors.
These participants, many of whom were graduate students studying subjects such as medicine, engineering and economics, were promised the dream American summer by the program. They had hoped to see the best of the United States and improve their English with American friends during their summer, but instead found themselves in a situation eerily similar to slave labor.
When they complained to the contractor running the program for the State Department, they were told that if they continued to complain, they could have their visas revoked and be sent home.
When students working for Hershey realized the reality of their American dream, they chose to fight back. On Aug. 17, they marched out of the production plant in protest after their cries went unheeded from Cetusa, the contractor running the program on behalf of the State Department.
We hear about trips abroad going horribly wrong for Americans in foreign countries all the time, but the fact that this kind of mistreatment happens on our soil, and from a government program no less, is nothing short of unthinkably heinous. This scandal will taint our country’s reputation for years to come, and perhaps irrevocably so.
When Americans hear of stories like these, we cannot and should not ignore their gravity. The fact that it took so long for this program’s misdeeds to be exposed speaks to the growing problem of apathy toward social causes in this country. Perhaps after reading this article, Americans should consider boycotting Hershey’s chocolate like they boycotted The Gap. These social injustices should not even be happening anymore, and when they do, we have a responsibility as citizens to step up and rectify the situation.
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