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Saturday, July 09, 2016

Housing Shortage Wreaking Havoc On Foreign Workers; ‘It’s Been The Most Stressful Year I’ve Ever Seen In This Business, And The Kids Are Even More Stressed Out.”

OCEAN CITY — In downtown Ocean City, three Romanian medical students here for the summer as part of the J-1 Visa Work and Travel program sit on the porch of their small second floor apartment. They are smoking cigarettes and sitting in the shade where it is much cooler than the house, because they say the ancient window air-conditioning units have not been working properly. They joke about how tired they are from their numerous jobs and chuckle about the many interesting things they’ve seen American tourists do while on vacation.

“I’m sorry for the mess,” says Emily, a petite and soft-spoken 20-something, “but the place is kind of a dump anyway, so there is not much we can do about it. I’m glad we took it though because there are many people who don’t have a place to stay and had to go home.”

Leading up to the summer season, the big talking point surrounding the annual influx of thousands of foreign students from around the globe that serve as a vital cog in the wheel of the summer workforce in the resort was a severe housing shortage.

“We didn’t know where we were going to put many of the students because many of the properties are either no longer available or the landlords have chosen not to rent to foreign students,” said Annemarie Conestabile, Program Director for United Work and Travel in Ocean City. “Thankfully, we found a place for everyone prior to the students arriving, but in some cases, we had landlords who backed out of our agreements just prior to Memorial Day weekend so they could rent to American tourists and make more money, and that made the housing shortage even worse.”

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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uh... This is ridiculous. Who cares about a housing shortage for workers from second world countries, (I've lived there) when AMERICANS need jobs?
Why don't these bleeding heart liberals get their priorities straight!
America first!

Anonymous said...

Why don't these lazy ass America's suck I up and take these jobs instead? Quit sucking off the government tit and work for once.

Anonymous said...

1:51
i know this is hard to believe, but those businesses cannot hire Americans.
There are truly more jobs than workers right now.

In Salisbury our company cannot find enough employees.
Everybody who wants a job has a job.

Anonymous said...

Smoking CANCER sticks and studying to be a doctor?? Complaining that the beach condo over looking the ocean isn't up to their country's standards? Awww

Anonymous said...

I agree with 151. This is an insult to local kids who'd like to have the jobs these foreigners are taking. What's wrong with business owners in OC!? They used to give local teenagers a place to make money for college back in the day. Now no one in OC is even American much less local. Sorry but I don't have an ounce of sympathy for this bullshit. It's nonsense. Plain and simple. And it's one of the reasons I never go to OC in the summer anymore. The city sold out Americans and I don't support anti-American communities or establishments.

🍭🍭🍭 Princess said...

202 you're so full of BS it's pathetic. I know some ppl who have been looking around here for years for jobs. They're usually over qualified. Over educated. But they still have to eat. Employers are taking advantage of workers with low wages not wanting to give benefits like health insurance. etc. you're absolutely insane! I call BS on your whole post.

Anonymous said...

I know I interviewed for a job this week that was seriously way below my education and experience level in an industry I have experience but didn't get the job. Wouldn't be surprised at all if it were given to someone that can't even type because they wanted to pay crappy wages. So I know what you mean, 2:18.

Anonymous said...

Well DUH! Like anyone should be surprised. No forethought in planning. Anyone with a brain saw this coming. Unfortunately OC voters aren't intelligent forward thinking people and have been voting in equally as dumb lack of thinking skills politicians for years now and this is the result.

Anonymous said...

These students have far more class than their American counter parts...Wish they were here when I was that age I would have married one.

Anonymous said...

What the hell is the matter with American students are the too dumb too stupid or are they just too lazy and spoiled to get a summer job?

Anonymous said...

4:10
It is cheaper to hire the foreign students. Employers pay less taxes on them. They also don't have to go back to school/college like the American Students do.

Unknown said...

I'm going to try to explain this as clearly as I'm able:
1. Employers must pay unemployment taxes for American employees. They don't for these foreign visa workers.
2. Ditto for Social security taxes.
3. The organizations (actually for profit businesses) who sponsor the visitors pay bonus fees to employers for providing minimum number of work hours. Nobody pays employers bonuses for American workers.
QED: Foreign workers are CHEAPER to hire than Americans

If elected officials would change the law so that employers pay the same taxes for EVERYBODY and make the bonus fees illegal, all employees would cost the same. If this happened, Ocean City would easily find many employees for the resort with existing housing arrangements. Those needing temporary housing would be considerably less.

Not long ago, I read that we bring in nearly 800,000 visa workers nationwide yearly. What's wrong with putting our own kids to work?

Anonymous said...

It is cheaper to hire the foreign students. Employers pay less taxes on them. They also don't have to go back to school/college like the American Students do. July 9, 2016 at 4:27
*****
It may be true there are tax advantages hiring foreign students. But you know what? Some of these employers are still paying wages under the table to them.

Know what else? All of them, except a few who make the mistake of going off the grid and not returning home, go back home to finish school. I knew one student who was able to come for three summers but she always went home to school and eventually did not return, getting married and starting life in her own country. Most students get one experience. A few do get married here and their life goes in a different direction.

One more thing some of these student are in America year-around because they go to college here.

And I run into Americans who are working in Ocean City all the time. The foreign students are all high quality, of course, or they wouldn't be in the program. All the Americans are not.

I there is one American, I know well, came in three times this summer. He keeps looking for work. Here is the key I don't need an employee but if I did I wouldn't hire him either.


Anonymous said...

6:37 - Why would Americans want to make it better for foreigners than for American kids? Why do we care what these people do after they leave here? You only know a single American willing to work here? Let's face it, there are no active programs to recruit American worker compared to foreign workers. There's also a hiring binge at the end of every summer for Americans once the foreigner leave town.

With your attitude, I wouldn't hire you either.

Anonymous said...

Many of these students remain in OC and then take classes at Wor Wic to get a second degree and then transfer to SU. Who knows? They will probably move to Wico Co to get free tuition now!