Eastern Europeans predominate in State Department program

Eastern Europeans are the predominant group of foreign workers coming to the United States on the federal government’s Summer Work-Travel program.

Russia and Poland alone sent more than 40,000 students to the U.S. last summer, and Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine were also among the top 10 countries represented by students in the program in 2006.

Brazil, Peru, Ireland, Thailand and Turkey were the other countries on the list.

In 2005, there were 104,351 Summer Work-Travel participants in the United States. Last summer brought 127,962 students, and this year the State Department expects between 140,000 and 150,000 students, according to Darlene Kirk, spokeswoman for the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Unlike temporary and migrant foreign workers who seek H2B visas in order to work in the United States, Summer Work-Travel visitors obtain J1 visas. The Summer Work-Travel program is part of the larger Exchange Visitor program, which also includes the Fulbright program, Iranian exchanges, the Murrow program for journalists and the Fortune program for women.

The purpose of the Summer Work-Travel program is to provide foreign postsecondary students an opportunity to become directly involved in the daily life of the people of the United States through travel and temporary work for a period of up to four months during their summer vacation, according to the State Department’s Web site.

While no age restrictions are imposed on Summer Work-Travel program participants, they must be postsecondary students. The majority of them are in their early 20s, Kirk said.