Press Releases
Summer Work and Travel Program
Ankara, July 27, 2009
Press reports about alleged abuses in the Summer Work and Travel (SWT) program present an inaccurate picture of this program, which has been very successful and popular in Turkey over the past decade. The SWT program is designed to provide post-secondary school students with a cultural exchange in the United States, allowing them to work on their English language skills while simultaneously earning money.
Approximately 10,000 Turkish students were issued visas for the Summer Work and Travel program in 2009, making Turkey the #2 country worldwide for SWT participation. Explosive growth in the number of Turkish students participating in this program over the past seven years reflects both the positive experiences had by the vast majority of Turkish SWT participants and enthusiastic support of the program by the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government values the opportunities the SWT program provides for cultural exchange between the people of Turkey and the United States, and for Turkish students to develop their English language and other valuable workplace skills. The overwhelmingly positive experiences reported by Turkish SWT students are evident in the substantial number of repeat participants who go summer after summer.
Turkish SWT participants work under the same conditions and with the same legal protections regarding work conditions, wages, etc. as their American peers. The students’ sponsors monitor their progress and welfare, as well as maintain records of their current U.S. addresses and telephone numbers. Sponsors are required to provide appropriate assistance to program participants on an as-needed emergency basis. Sponsors must provide all participants with telephone numbers through which they have 24-hour immediate contact with the sponsor organization’s representatives, as well as contact information for the State Department Exchange Visitor Programs Compliance Unit. The State Department’s Compliance Unit and our embassy and consulates in Turkey continue to carefully monitor the SWT program to ensure that participating students continue to enjoy a positive experience in the United States.