I'm currently an au pair. Here are the following reasons why I think this should be abolished completely. The following are mine and my friends' experiences.
1. Host parents are strict with the 5 hours. If you tell them it's UP TO 5 hours, they will make you work up to 5 hours even if there are no children to take care of. Just house cleaning. Imagine cleaning a home 5 hours per day 5x a week. 25 hours of cleaning. Even if the house is 300sqm, that is still a lot of cleaning.
2. No one checks up on au pairs. Once the permit is approved, we are in the hands of our host families. They ask us to do things like cleaning their swimming pools, cleaning their carpets with our hands, gardening alone. No one will find out until we tell someone. It is hard to tell someone because we live in our host families homes. When do we call? Do we whisper? Do we do it on the streets where potentially could be heard by anyone?
3. They don't pay for everything. There are host parents who only pay the allowance of 5900 and provide free accommodation. But food and transportation, we pay for that. Again, the authorities wont find out because no one will check and there is not system for them to check.
4. They offer us around to their friends who will pay 150/hour to get their houses cleaned. I have refused this and many have. But this does happen. To them, they are doing us a favor because we will be earning but in my opinion it is exploitation. You could never find a place or a private individual who will clean a house for just 150/hour. It is not a favor, it is exploitation.
5. They don't treat us au pairs like family. I have never eaten with my host family. They want me to have my own life, as per their words. I also don't know a single au pair who has spent Christmas or 17th of May with their host family. There is a wall between us and we are just changeable every 2 years.
6. Not all of them offers free accommodation. If you thoroughly check host parents' homes, they don't have any extra rooms for au pairs to stay at. These au pairs end up living with someone they know like relatives or friends from the same home country. No one even checks the home conditions of these host parents, they just pay the application fee and it gets approved.
7. Host parents are often rich and powerful. They intimidate us when we talk to them when we say we are uncomfortable doing domestic work for them.
Please ban the au pair scheme.
1. Host parents are strict with the 5 hours. If you tell them it's UP TO 5 hours, they will make you work up to 5 hours even if there are no children to take care of. Just house cleaning. Imagine cleaning a home 5 hours per day 5x a week. 25 hours of cleaning. Even if the house is 300sqm, that is still a lot of cleaning.
2. No one checks up on au pairs. Once the permit is approved, we are in the hands of our host families. They ask us to do things like cleaning their swimming pools, cleaning their carpets with our hands, gardening alone. No one will find out until we tell someone. It is hard to tell someone because we live in our host families homes. When do we call? Do we whisper? Do we do it on the streets where potentially could be heard by anyone?
3. They don't pay for everything. There are host parents who only pay the allowance of 5900 and provide free accommodation. But food and transportation, we pay for that. Again, the authorities wont find out because no one will check and there is not system for them to check.
4. They offer us around to their friends who will pay 150/hour to get their houses cleaned. I have refused this and many have. But this does happen. To them, they are doing us a favor because we will be earning but in my opinion it is exploitation. You could never find a place or a private individual who will clean a house for just 150/hour. It is not a favor, it is exploitation.
5. They don't treat us au pairs like family. I have never eaten with my host family. They want me to have my own life, as per their words. I also don't know a single au pair who has spent Christmas or 17th of May with their host family. There is a wall between us and we are just changeable every 2 years.
6. Not all of them offers free accommodation. If you thoroughly check host parents' homes, they don't have any extra rooms for au pairs to stay at. These au pairs end up living with someone they know like relatives or friends from the same home country. No one even checks the home conditions of these host parents, they just pay the application fee and it gets approved.
7. Host parents are often rich and powerful. They intimidate us when we talk to them when we say we are uncomfortable doing domestic work for them.
Please ban the au pair scheme.