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NO SHORE THING
By Ákos Beöthy
Inquirer Staff Writer
Jul 24, 2008
The 21-year-old Bulgarian amusement-park worker fatally struck by a roller coaster this month belonged to a foreign workforce facing a more mundane hardship this year: a dearth of jobs after arriving.
Marina Battalova, 21, found herself scrounging for work a month after arriving in June from Yekaterinburg, Russia, and getting fired as a hotel housekeeper on the Jersey Shore.
"I asked more than 50 places on the Boardwalk if they have a job - hotels, motels, cafés, restaurants and shops. But the usual answer was 'Come next week,' " she said through an interpreter.
As hospitality businesses along the Jersey Shore experience a slowdown, many young people among the perennial flock of temporary foreign workers say they are getting too little work to cover their travel expenses or simply to make ends meet.
College students from countries including Russia, Ukraine, China and Egypt said they paid about $2,500 for airfare and program fees to organizations that help them secure jobs and J-1 exchange-visitor visas. That allows them to work in the United States for four months.
Some workers, including Battalova, say they may head home early, tapped out - a dismal statement about economic reality at the Shore, where businesses long ago turned to foreign workers to fill seasonal jobs they say they are unable to fill locally.
"I believe that if we did not have them, the seasonal businesses would be in trouble," said Pat Gallelli, general manager of the Tahiti Inn in Ocean City, where eight of 18 employees are foreign students.
Foreign students on average are paid the same as local staff, or $7.50 to $9 per hour, slightly more than the state's $7.15 minimum wage, recruiters say.
"They're good people, they're hard workers, they come from good families, they have good values, and we're happy to have them," Gallelli said.
Most students spend the summer in something like a work-consumed cocoon: Few pay attention to English-language newspapers or TV. They spend days working one or more jobs, if they are lucky. Many said they did not even know about the incident on July 13, in which Stanislav Nikolaev Dragnev was struck in the head by a roller coaster after he entered a restricted zone to retrieve a child's cap. He was removed from life support four days later, after his father arrived from Bulgaria to be at his side.
This week, hundreds of workers took time for a memorial service, organized by the Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, where many foreign students work.
Battalova said she was fired after another worker at the Blue Water Inn in Ocean City bad-mouthed her in order to get a job for somebody else - a claim that could not be verified. Whatever the reason, Battalova has been searching for another job since, an effort made more difficult by her poor English.
Battalova said that she arrived with $500 in cash and that her parents sent her $200 after she was fired. Now that is gone, too, after she spent her last $95 on weekly rent. As days go by without work, Battalova said she was getting closer to heading home - as her mother wants her to do.
"I cried a lot in the evenings in my pillow," Battalova said. "But now I try to look on the positives. I've seen the ocean for the first time, I am sun-tanned, I made new friends. And it was a school of life, after all."
For many, the real hardship may be working just one job, not two - a telling perspective on their money-making goal. "They want to work from sunup to sundown," said Gallelli, of the Tahiti Inn.
Gallelli said he had received many job inquiries, all from foreign students. "About a week ago we had to put up a help-wanted sign . . .. Within two hours we received about 14 people looking for work," he said.
Karim Badran, 21, a civil-engineering student from Cairo, holds down three jobs at Morey's Piers in Wildwood: pool lifeguard, hotel housekeeper, and food-service worker at the park. He pays $75 per week for a room he shares with five other lifeguards, all from Egypt; one is his cousin.
"It cost me $2,500 to come here, and I think I can save even more to travel and to do some shopping," Badran said.
He has visited Washington on a one-day trip organized by Morey's and plans a similar trip to New York.
Morey's Piers employs at least 800 foreign students this summer, more than half its workforce. Company officials acknowledge the tough times and take steps to avoid them in advance.
"We provide them with as realistic a preview of our job as possible," said Denise Beckson, director of operations and human resources.
She said the company interviews all students while they are still overseas and before offering them jobs. "We either interview them by going to their countries to a job fair, or we interview them on a computer through Webcam," Beckson said. For this season, the company's representatives visited 25 countries.
"We really make sure to address the students' needs, make sure they get the hours, make sure to plan things . . . have parties, have trips," Beckson said.
Morey's Piers also operates hotels and restaurants near its amusement parks, so students have a fairly good chance of finding a second job. "We have a recruiting office dedicated to our summer employees," Beckson said.
One Morey's worker, Yury Eryzhenskiy, 21, a tourism student from Rostov-on-Don, Russia, said he was looking for more than money this summer.
"As I study tourism, the experience I gain here will be especially useful. I want to meet as many people as possible, improve my communications and organization skills," he said.
Eryzhenskiy works in the amusement park seven hours a day selling tickets, checking bags and making announcements, then three or four additional hours as a ride operator.
Other summer workers have not been as lucky. Ivan Sologub, 20, an engineering student from Moldova, ended up in Ocean City searching for work after quitting a pre-arranged job in central Pennsylvania that he said was not as promised.
"For one and half months, I did not find a job allowing for more than three or four hours of work a day," Sologub said. Finally he got a full-time pizzeria job and has been working 11 hours a day, seven days a week. He wants a second job but is not hopeful.
"I wanted to travel in the country before returning home. But I can't travel now," Sologub said. "I only want to work. I don't want to miss a single day; I will go home on Sept. 17, and I will work until Sept. 16."
Contact staff writer Ákos Beöthy at 215-854-5649 or abeothy@phillynews.com .
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