Education - The Missing Link in America's Slavery Crisis

It is estimated that more than 11.7 million undocumented immigrants are currently living in the United States. They enter the United States by whatever means, and are promptly met by a world they do not understand. Many come from lives of immense poverty, and come to the United States hoping for a better standard of living. However, the majority lack any type of advanced education, let alone English skills. To illustrate a sliver of this: Mexico is the largest sender of immigrants to the United States. In a 2000 study, 63% of male and 57% of female Mexican immigrants had not completed high school. Another study from 2010 found that nearly 50% of Mexican immigrants have little to no English abilities. 

What this data promises for the state of slavery in the United States is imminent downfall. Every year the vast majority of immigrants arrive formally uneducated, without the means to communicate. This disadvantage is more than just inconvenient: it puts these newcomers at a disproportionately high rate of being trafficked or forced into a life of slavery. With little knowledge of how American society works, how to find better jobs, or even how to communicate with people, they are often isolated and make easy targets for someone looking for cheap labor. 

Ima Matul was a 17-year-old housekeeper in Indonesia when she moved to Los Angeles to work as a nanny for a seemingly promising family. A victim of modern slavery, she was overworked without any pay and was being physically abused. She sought to escape her situation, but was told by her employer that since they held her passport, she would be arrested for being undocumented if she tried to seek help. Worse, Matul did not speak any English – even if she had the opportunity to ask for help, she would not know how to actually ask. It took her three years and a note reading “please help me”, sent to a nanny down the street, to be rescued from her situation. 

Ima Matul

Ruth, a fifty-two year old woman from West Africa, found a housekeeping job in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Much like Matul, her work quickly escalated and she found herself facing what was essentially a twenty-four hour workday, as well as physical abuse. When she tried to get help from a police officer, he relied on her employers to translate her broken French; they took advantage of the situation and quickly had her back in their control. As described in Kevin Bales’ The Slave Next Door, “Ruth received no pay and never really knew anything of America except the site of her abuse…Ruth lacked the language skills to communicate outside of the house.” 

In both cases, there is an obvious connection that led to the continued enslavement of Ima and Ruth: neither was sufficiently educated in English or their basic rights as an immigrant worker. For example, even undocumented immigrants with very few rights are allowed access to education. Any victim of trafficking is also eligible for government assistance programs, no matter their immigration status. Many women trapped in domestic servitude find their only escape, literally and figuratively, to be Sunday church services – this is usually the only (if any) time housekeepers are allowed to take off work.  It comes as no surprise then that religious leaders are among the top reporters of trafficking. From here, these workers can be removed from their situation and given the information they need to create a new, successful life.

Ima Matul escaped her life in slavery, first living in a shelter run by CAST – the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking. For fifteen months she lived in the shelter while going to school and working as a fully compensated housekeeper. She received her GED, worked as a file clerk in a law office, and is now currently the Survivor Organizer at CAST. Education was the link separating her from a life of forced domestic servitude and one of passionate, fair work doing something meaningful and life-changing. Ruth eventually escaped as well, but did so without the same resources as Matul. Traumatized by her experience, she returned home to West Africa with nothing more than what she came with.

So how can the United States protect its immigrant workers, specifically those hoping for a job in domestic services? One main way is to provide more monitoring of workers in the country on a work visa. Different visa types currently require – or lack – different services. An example provided in Kevin Bales' The Slave Next Door illustrates the danger in this: a young western European woman working as an au pair would travel on a J-1 visa. This provides government monitoring of her situation, orientation programs, a set, guaranteed salary, and money to help pay for educational programs. However, the same woman coming from Cameroon would travel with a B-1 visa, receiving nothing more than a visual inspection by a customs agent. By fixing this incredible inequality, the United States could drastically reduce the amount of trafficking victims entering on work visas.

Another similar solution is to implement standardized testing for anyone intending to work in the United States. At minimum, it should require English competence and an understanding of worker’s rights – the essential tools to getting help if a situation is to turn dangerous. Though restricting the entering workforce could pose problems, it is far better to have a smaller, well-educated group of safe and monitored workers than the unacceptable situation the nation currently faces. 

Though the task appears impossibly daunting – monitoring and testing potential immigrant workers, creating new legislature on visa requirements – it is a very attainable goal when broken down. The United States is currently in a position to break new ground in the abolition of modern day slavery just through internal revisions. As the country with the largest immigrant population by percentage, eradicating its domestic slavery just might be the first step towards the final abolition movement.