Tight job market is bane of visiting foreign students

VIRGINIA BEACH

When Rinnata Mussina arrived, exhausted by the long trip from her native Kazakhstan, she was prepared to start a summer job at an Oceanfront bike rental shop.

But the 23-year-old college student was told to come back the next week, then the week after, then the week after. The owner told her and a friend who'd traveled to Virginia with her that there wasn't enough business to hire them, Mussina said.

They shared a three-bedroom apartment with 10 other foreign students for $300 a month each, surviving mostly on rice and meals from a soup kitchen.

A steady job proved hard to find. Mussina worked briefly at an ice cream parlor until the hours dried up, sold cosmetics on commission at a mall kiosk and waited tables, but the hours weren't enough. She considered washing cars at a dealership for tips, but the idea of working in a bathing suit made her uncomfortable.

Finally, she got her current job in housekeeping at Country Inn & Suites on Atlantic Avenue.

Mussina is one of several thousand foreign students who came to Hampton Roads and the Outer Banks this summer to fill seasonal jobs, according to estimates from employers, sponsors and the Virginia Beach Hotel-Motel Association. They come every summer, recruited by businesses and sponsors who offer them an opportunity to make some money, practice their English and see the States.

Despite a decline in the number of foreign students coming, some reported an especially difficult time finding work this year.

Early this summer, the Judeo-Christian Outreach Center, which serves meals for people in need near the Oceanfront, was overwhelmed with foreign students, Executive Director Kirk Welch said.

"It started to become an issue when some of the locals weren't getting to eat," Welch said. So he limited foreign students to five meals, giving each of them a yellow punch card to keep track.

Artem Milka, a 19-year-old Russian, presented his card last month for a tray of spaghetti, salad, fruit and pie. He said it took him three weeks to find a job in hotel maintenance making $7.25 an hour.

"We don't earn enough money to pay for our own food, program, visa, ticket and rent," he said. And it's hard to find work, he added.

Before he returns home at the end of the month, Milka said he has to earn enough to repay his family the roughly $2,000 it cost to get here.

Most students arrive with a job offer in hand, but only some are guaranteed. Employers are trimming hours, said Phil Simon, vice president of employer relations at the Council on International Educational Exchange, a non profit sponsor that brought several hundred students here this summer.

And while many students have worked second, and sometimes third, jobs in the past, that's getting harder to do. Only two in 11 students interviewed for this story said they had a second job.

The tight job market means more students are coming for the cultural experience rather than for financial gain, Simon said.

Employers have maintained the program allows them to fill summer positions - largely unskilled jobs that pay minimum wage - that there aren't enough American workers for. This year, unemployment hit 8 percent in Hampton Roads and 12.5 percent in parts of northeast North Carolina. Now some out-of-work Americans may be competing for lower-paying jobs such as cashiers, cooks and housekeepers, said Greg Grootendorst, chief economist at the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.

Michele Frey works as a housekeeper at the Oceanfront each summer. But the 56-year-old woman says she's been out of work two months despite completing about 70 applications.

Just before school ended in June, Marisa Bergfield, a 16-year-old student at First Colonial High School, hit the Oceanfront to look for jobs at retail stores, coffee shops and hotels. She said she was told that all the positions had been filled. She ended up finding three part-time jobs, but some of her friends weren't as lucky, she said.

"As fewer jobs become available, people are more open to looking at jobs that they would not have considered before," Grootendorst said. "That would include any lower-paying jobs."

But not everyone agreed that the students, who often make minimum wage of $7.25 an hour or just a bit more, compete with out-of-work Americans.

"Employers typically wouldn't use this program if they had sufficient American, qualified American, applicants," Simon said. "They're forced into this position."

With tourists flocking to the beach, he said, "meals still need to be delivered to tables. Beds still need to be made. Rooms still need to be cleaned."

Richard Maddox, who owns two Dairy Queens at the Oceanfront and two elsewhere in Virginia Beach, said he expected an influx of local applicants for summer jobs. They never came.

"There were over 4,000 foreign students here in Virginia Beach last year. They wouldn't be here if we had Americans," he said. "It has now gotten to the point where we have to hire people from the other side of the planet because we haven't found enough Americans to work for us."

Maddox said he hired about 55 foreign students this summer, about a third of his staff.

"It's very frustrating for me to hear how difficult it is for young kids now to get jobs because of the economy," he said. "I have seen absolutely no increase whatsoever in local teenagers applying for jobs with us."

In light of the tough job market, the State Department, which administers the work program, asked sponsors in February 2009 to reduce the number of participants. And they did.

Nationwide, the number dropped nearly 35 percent in 2009 to 99,672, from 152,958 the previous fiscal year, according to the State Department. So far this year, as of June 30, 95,394 students have come.

While comprehensive data isn't readily available for Hampton Roads and the Outer Banks, several sponsors said they've seen their numbers shrink by 20 to 30 percent. Nancy Marscheider Perry, executive director of the Virginia Beach Hotel-Motel Association, said she estimates that between 1,500 and 2,000 foreign students are here this summer, down from 3,000 to 4,000 in the past.

Despite the recession, Oceanfront employers say business has been pretty good. According to the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitor's Bureau, tourism-related revenue was up 4.2 percent through July.

The Oceanfront and the Outer Banks aren't the only places with a demand for foreign student labor. Teresa Ottofaro-Devries, the regional employment services manager for Cultural Homestay International, a non profit student sponsor, placed 21 students in Portsmouth, 10 in Chesapeake, four in Norfolk and nearly 200 in Williamsburg.

Sun O. Slusher and her husband hired three foreign students to work at their Subway restaurants on Granby Street and East Main Street in Norfolk.

"We had lots of trouble with the people over here, with the locals," Slusher said. "A lot of times they were not responsible enough," and would show up late or not at all, she said.

The international students didn't miss a day of work all summer, Slusher said. "They're wonderful."

Last week was the final week of work for Anna Bekaeva and Sergey Dvinakhov, 21-year-old Russian students who worked for Slusher. Now they plan to travel before returning home.

The program helped Bekaeva improve her English and provided the cash for some clothes, a laptop and travel money. At a similar job in Russia, she would have made half as much, Bekaeva said.

"In Russia, there's no money," she said. "There are no jobs for students."

Even those who struggled at first said they'll leave with a positive impression, including Rinnata Mussina, who hopes to come back.

"Everyone sees that I am a foreigner, and they're trying to help me. That's really good," she said. "I like the ocean. I like the people."

Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com