#immigration and exploitation

[longwindedbore]

[gamer2002]

What labor? Picking cotton?

[librarycards]

just saw a post comparing anxieties about human trafficking to the satanic panic, and feel the need to point out the crucial distinction that satan is fake and human trafficking, while it does not often happen the way white parents freak out about it happening, is actually very real

[meltyman666]

The first potential law passed in the US will likely have imprisoned migrants working in agriculture/traditionally exploitative jobs for “slave wages” and inhumane hours. The private prison industrial complex will profit heavily from the Laken Riley Act.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A major construction union is calling for a suspension of Canada’s temporary foreign worker program, citing the case of an Indonesian man who says he was exploited. Ariefs, who Global News is not identifying because he fears retaliation for speaking out, came to Canada after seeing a job with Concord Wall Painting advertised in a YouTube ad. He was hired to work on major public building expansions, including the Lions Gate and Royal Columbian hospitals.

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[affairsmastery]

El Salvador has proposed housing US-deported criminals, including US citizens, in its mega-jail. The deal, announced after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met President Nayib Bukele, allows the US to "outsource part of its prison system."

Rubio called it an unprecedented act of friendship, while Bukele confirmed only convicted criminals would be accepted for a fee. El Salvador will also take in deported gang members, including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua. Bukele’s tough-on-crime policies continue to spark both praise and criticism globally.

[memesmith]

[one-world-many-stories]

blog introduction + about me

In recent years, the dehumanization of refugees and immigrants has become impossible to ignore.

In the United States, families fleeing unimaginable horrors such as war or immense oppression have been met not with safety, but with completely cruelty. In a country that prides itself on being the "land of the free", nonetheless. Rather than being taken to shelter and safety, children are torn from their parents at the border, locked in cages, and referred to as “unaccompanied alien minors,” as if their humanity was secondary to their immigration status. Political leaders have continuously fed into the hatred, calling immigrants “animals” and describing them as a “national security threat.” In recent months, President elect Donald Trump described Haitian refugees as "They're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs." These words, repeated again and again, have justified policies that treated these families as less than human, as though their suffering didn’t matter.

In Europe, it is no different. Refugees escaping war and persecution find themselves trapped in refugee camps like Moria, where the conditions were so poor that one humanitarian aid worker called it “a place of sheer hopelessness.” Politicians didn’t hold back their disdain. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, called refugees “Muslim invaders,” while others described their boats as carrying “human meat.” When we hear words like that, it’s no surprise that so many people turned a blind eye to what was happening. Refugees were left to drown in the Mediterranean or sit for years in squalid camps, waiting for help that never comes.

What makes all of this even more devastating is how refugees and immigrants are so often reduced to numbers, and thus dehumanized even further. The stories of who they are—what they’ve endured, what they’ve lost—are rarely told. Instead, we hear statistics: thousands detained, hundreds drowned, millions displaced. But behind each number is a human being. A mother clutching her child as they cross a river in the dead of night. A teenager leaving behind everything they know for a chance to live without fear. A father who would do anything to provide a better life for his family. Their stories matter, but we rarely hear them. After all, it's easier to ignore suffering when it doesn’t have a face.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

It is this reason that has inspired me to create a Tumblr blog that addresses this problem. Through seeing and learning about these people that we've so often reduced into numbers, we can fully understand their troubles. And by welcoming them with empathy and kindness rather than cruelty and oppression, we can treat them as the humans that they are.

My goal for blog posts is to do a mix of informative readings, as well as present the stories of real life refugees and immigrants through interviews. As I begin to post, I encourage others to submit their own stories and photos.

For a little bit about me: my name is Dania and I am a student at the University of Indianapolis, studying International Relations. While I was blessed with being born an American citizen, I am Iraqi and my parents are refugees who fled the country following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. I have seen first hand how countries and livelihoods are destroyed, so people face no choice but to flee, even if their home is beautiful and beloved to them. I hope to one day use my degree for a career in International Development and transform third-world countries into beautiful, livable places. Because, in the words of the British-Somali poet Warsan Shire, "Nobody leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark."

[coochiequeens]

Finally someone in office calling out international surrogacy for being a new form of human trafficking.

By Joshua Solano Nov 02, 2024, 4:13 am

THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) is sounding the alarm over the increase in human trafficking cases involving women recruited for illegal surrogacy abroad, following the repatriation of seven victims on October 23, 2024.

These women, aged 20 to 30, were recruited to work as surrogate mothers for unknown clients abroad, the BI said in a press release on Saturday, November 2, 2024.

Merriam-Webster defines a surrogate mother as a "woman who becomes pregnant by artificial insemination or by implantation of a fertilized egg created by in vitro fertilization for the purpose of carrying the fetus to term for another person or persons."

The BI said three of the victims left the country under the guise of visiting relatives but fell victim to deceptive promises of surrogacy. The remaining four had no records and likely exited through unauthorized means, the BI added.

BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said investigations reveal a scheme where traffickers recruit online, then arrange complex travel through multiple borders to avoid detection.

“The Philippines is being targeted by traffickers who lure women with surrogacy offers. We urge Filipinos to avoid these offers, as surrogacy abroad often carries serious legal risks,” Viado said.

In October, 20 Filipino women were rescued by authorities after reportedly being trafficked to become surrogate mothers. Of the 20 women, 13 were pregnant through artificial means.

The pregnant women were supposed to be transferred to another country where they would give birth. The seven others were deported by the Cambodian government over immigration law violations. BI officers also intercepted a 37-year-old woman recruited for surrogacy and headed to Georgia on October 15.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, who chairs the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, has earlier sought the conduct of a congressional inquiry into this "new form" of a human trafficking scheme victimizing Filipino women. (JGS/SunStar Philippines)

[reasonsforhope]

"California will begin paying for free legal help with immigration for undocumented farmworkers who are involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced this week.

The $4.5 million pilot program will provide qualifying farmworkers with referrals for legal help with their immigration status. 

Roughly half of California’s farmworker population is believed to be undocumented. Fear of deportation and difficulties finding jobs can discourage workers from filing labor complaints or serving as witnesses in cases alleging unsafe work temperatures, wage theft, or employer retaliation for unionizing, officials said...

Respecting immigrant rights

Farmworkers in labor investigations who qualify for the new state program will receive a direct referral to legal services organizations that already offer immigration services, such as the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County or the United Farm Workers Foundation, which spoke in support of the program. 

The free legal services workers could receive include case review, legal advice and representation by an attorney, according to Newsom’s office...

Deferred deportation

State officials said the pilot program aligns with a new Biden administration policy that makes it easier for undocumented workers who are victims of labor rights violations to request deferred action from deportation. Because the federal Department of Homeland Security can’t respond to all immigration violations, it exercises “prosecutorial discretion” to decide who to try to deport.

State officials said they won’t ask for workers’ immigration status, but noncitizens granted this deferred action may be eligible for work authorization.

This year, California labor department officials began supporting undocumented workers’ requests for prosecutorial discretion or deferred action from federal immigration officials, including when employers threaten workers with immigration enforcement to prevent workers from cooperating with state investigators. 

“The Department of Industrial Relations’ Labor Commissioner’s Office … was the first state agency to request deferred action from DHS for employees in an active investigation, and that request was successful,” Hickey said. “This is an important process for undocumented workers to be aware of.”"

-via CalMatters, July 21, 2023

[vividdreamer]

My (somewhat) controversial takes about employment in today's world:

1. Requiring a visa sponsorship is evil, scammy, destroys people's lives, keeps immigrants hopeless, anxious, and extremely obedient to authority... and all the justifications for it are utter bullshit. This system is only designed to make it nearly impossible to obtain legal status, creating a high risk for many workers ALREADY WITHIN THE STATE to become undocumented if they switch jobs, are laid off, or fired for stupid reasons (like "poor time management" and it's someone who had a sickness or injury), because it could take YEARS to find another sponsor. The incentive here for businesses? Undocumented workers can be exploited and abused to no limits.

2. Remote or hybrid work is a win for people who either can't commute to their work or need to save the costs of commuting anyway. But it's not the solution for a healthy work-life balance. Working 8 hours in your home is not a life.

3. The work days in a week need to be reduced YESTERDAY because how are millions of people supposed to be happy and healthy when they are legally unburdened by work for just TWO DAYS.

[gregor-samsung]

สุดเสน่หา [Blissfully Yours] (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2002)

[girldraki]

UPDATE on our brother sending $400 on paypal to a woman he believed to be a sex worker (“for a normal date”), bypassing (1) paypal’s fraud protection by using multiple transactions (2) the fact that she was using a fake name (3) the advice of his friends: she was also using noticeably broken english

[crankycrab2]

You should be legally allowed to kill “expats” and “digital nomads” with hammers. I fucking hate them. Call yourself what you are like the rest of us we are immigrants. Well except for the fact that you are intentionally jacking up local economics in those “cheap” countries so bad locals can’t live there. People saying “oh the irony 😏” to this happening make me so mad. How to tell me you know literally nothing about anything in one sentence!

[hayscodings]

i also hate it when people are like “kev is my fave he doesn’t have a bad bone in his body” no he is an asshole like everyone else and that is fine actually