Labor migration schemes around the world are typically created to fit the needs of employers, and rarely support and protect the rights of the migrant workers. In my article, “Why Transparency in the Recruiter Supply Chain is Important in the Effort to Reduce Exploitation of H-2 Workers,” I propose one means to reduce worker vulnerability in the U.S. but the proposal could apply just as easily in other countries.
Over 100,000 workers a year obtain H-2 visas to come to the United States to labor in temporary, low wage jobs such as farm work, landscaping, and forestry. H-2 visas allow workers to work only for one employer for less than one year. Surprisingly, although they can work legally in the U.S., this foreign work force is at high risk of becoming human trafficking victims due, in part, to the lack of transparency in the recruitment process, a weak regulatory framework and weak enforcement of the few laws that do exist to protect them.
An important part of this trafficking story lays in in the recruitment of H-2 workers in foreign countries. The H-2 recruitment system operates essentially in a clandestine manner leaving the workers in a guessing game if the person offering a job a charlatan, a trafficker, or an agent recruiting on behalf of U.S. employers who are certified by the US. to hire H-2 workers. At present, there is no system for workers to find any information about the recruiter and, therefore, whether the job in the U.S. is real.
In the article, “Why Transparency in the Recruiter Supply Chain is Important in the Effort to Reduce Exploitation of H-2 Workers,” I lay out a means to bring more transparency to a specific source of exploitation during the recruitment process: the identity of the recruiter. I argue that workers should be provided tools to verify the identity of the recruiter as a means to prevent their own possible victimization.
The core of the argument is disclosure of the “Recruiter Supply Chain”, which would require the U.S. employer at the beginning of the H-2 process to disclose details about the foreign recruiters and the sub contractors they may hire.
The information would be publicly available through multiple means, such as the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. consular websites, as well as a U.S. consular hotline in the countries of recruitment. Utilizing these sources, workers and their advocates could cross check the offer in the foreign country to determine whether the recruiter is legitimate and if the job is as promised.
The important point here is that the validity of a job offer could be investigated before the workers invest hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on a job that may not exist.
Recruiter disclosure will also allow foreign governments to enforce their own laws, often crafted to protect workers in the recruitment process. Without knowledge of who the recruiters are, the foreign governments are hard pressed to ensure their laws are being followed.
This type of pre-departure public information could help workers not only avoid becoming ensnared in a trafficking scheme, but lead to the prosecution of fraudulent recruiters and traffickers.
The economic desperation of so many workers – who are forced to depend upon unreliable sources for information about jobs overseas – presents challenges to creating meaningful, effectual mechanisms to reduce the chronic fraud, trafficking and other abuses committed in the name of the H-2 visa, but it is imperative that we try.
For more information, read Why Transparency in the Recruiter Supply Chain is Important in the Effort to Reduce Exploitation of H-2 Workers
Cathleen Caron is the Founder and Executive Director of Global Workers Justice Alliance. Global Workers combats worker exploitation by promoting portable justice for transnational migrants through a cross-border network of advocates and resources. Global Workers believes that portable justice, the right and ability of transnational migrants to access justice in the country of employment even after they have departed, is a key, under addressed element to achieving justice for today’s global migrants. To learn more go to www.globalworkers.org or contact cathleen@globalworkers.org