Английский

MODULE II

SOCIAL PROBLEMS. HUMAN RIGHTS

Text 1

Migrants in Russia

St. Petersburg police detained between 128 and 180 migrants from Central Asia on Wednesday who lived on the abandoned territory of the city’s Krasny Treugolnik rubber factory.

Police organized the raid of the plant as a part of a murder investigation.

Law enforcement officials were investigating the murder of a 47-year-old woman committed the night of August 12. The woman died in a hospital as a result of multiple blows to her head and body that she su ered from two men of Asian appearance after the three had been drinking together.

“In order to find the people who committed the crime, the investigation department of Admiralteisky district, the district’s police and migration service organized the raid”, the prosecutor’s general’s o ce report said. “As a result of the raid, police detained about 180 migrants who arrived from Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan.”

According to the report, the detained migrants had no jobs and were residing in unsanitary conditions on premises not equipped for living.

Meanwhile, St. Petersburg’s Federal Migration Service Board said that police detained 128 migrants during the raid, all of whom had their fingerprints taken. Only three of them did not have permission to work in Russia, the Migration Service said, Interfax reported.

Wednesday’s raid is the latest in a series of detainments of large numbers of immigrants. It was reported August 19 that Moscow police had detained more than 300 illegal migrants from Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The migrants were living in condemned apartment buildings on Prospect Mira and Ulitsa Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya in the center of Moscow. On the same day, migration o cials confirmed that police had discovered 65 illegal migrants from Vietnam living in a forest outside of Moscow in the course of police actions on July 30 and August 6.

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In recent years, Russia has become one of the biggest centers of migration in the world after the United States, according to a 2008 World Bank survey.

According to the World Bank report, about 12 million guest workers arrive in Russia annually, whereas 11 million leave Russia. Every year migrants send home more than 11 billion dollars, and experts say Russia’s dependence on migrant labor will continue to grow through the next decade.

Acсording to a report by one of the newspapers, 40 percent of migrants work in construction, 30 percent in trade, 10 percent in industry, seven percent in agriculture, five percent in transport.

Words to be memorized:

To detain — detainment — задерживать, арестовывать; задержание, арест

Raid — внезапное нападение, облава, рейд, набег Abandon — покидать, оставлять, бросать

Murder — убийство

To investigate — investigation — расследовать; расследование

Law Enforcement — обеспечение правопорядка, правоохранительные органы

Multiple — множественные

To commit a crime — совершить преступление Prosecutor — обвинитель, прокурор

Premises — здание с прилегающими постройками и участком земли, недвижимость

Condemned — забракованный, признанный негодным To condemn — осуждать, обвинять

To confirm — подтверждать In the course of — в ходе Annually — ежегодно

To depend — dependence — зависеть; зависимость According to — согласно, в соответствии с…

Tasks:

I.Questions:

1)Why did the police organize a raid in the Krasny Treygolnik’s premises?

2)How many migrants were detained?

3)What was the result of the raid?

4)What conditions do many migrants live in?

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5)Do all of them have permission for work?

6)What countries do they come from?

7)Does Russia depend on their labour?

8)What fields do immigrants work in?

II. Translate from Russian into English:

1)Для того, чтобы найти человека, совершившего преступление, нужно снять отпечатки его пальцев.

2)Федеральная Миграционная служба озабочена антисанитарными условиями, в которых живут многие иммигранты в России.

3)Прокуратура подтвердила, что число преступлений среди иммигрантов велико.

4)Иммигранты живут в зданиях, признанных непригодными для жилья, или в лесу, они вынуждены платить чиновникам правоохранительных органов и миграционных служб огромные деньги, чтобы получить разрешение на жительство и работу.

5)По сведениям, собранным Мировым Банком, Россия занимает второе после США место по количеству иммигрантов.

6)Такие отрасли как строительство, торговля, промышленность, общественный транспорт зависят от труда иммигрантов.

7)Ежегодно из России вывозятся около 11 млрд долларов.

Text 2

Summer Workers Cheated

The young workers come from Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, spending their own money to get to summer resort towns desperate for labor. Many of them wind up cheated out of wages and overtime pay, working jobs that violate child labor laws or docked pay to cover room and board.

A New York state investigation last year found that nearly 200 foreign workers were cheated by several companies in an upstate resort town. The state ordered the businesses to repay the employees, plus interest, and pay fines.

Some of the companies are appealing the ruling and more than three months later, about 180 students who worked for the companies between 2002 and 2006 are still owed $103,000 in pay, interest, and fines.

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Nationally, The Southern Poverty Law Center found “legal guest workers” in the US — in some cases students — are at risk for abuse and exploitation. A report issued in 2007 by the center said many workers were promised higher wages or were given fewer weeks of work than promised.

In 2006, the most recent data available from the US Department of State, about 600,000 guest workers were issued US visas, not including highly trained workers, athletes and entertainers.

In many cases workers were unable to dig out of the debt — ranging from $500 to $10.000 — incurred just to get to the United States, according to the report.

Shu-Ting “Sandy” Chang, a 22-year — old college student from Taiwan, said she travelled to St Louis in the summer of 2006 to work at a Six Flags amusement park. There, she lived with three other students in one room — instead of the two-person quarters promised to her — far from work. She and other international workers took a bus that ran twice a day — at 10.30 a.m. and 10 p.m.

“Even if we got o work in the afternoon, all we could do was wait, or people just kept working”, Chang said. She earned about $1,000 as a deep-fry cook, after her title was described as a hostess. It cost her $2,200 to get to the USA, plus rent. She described the experience as “painful”.

Elizabeth Gotway, a spokeswoman for Six Flags, said the company met with some students who approached the company with complaints and misunderstandings. “At the end of those meetings and talking with them, we were able to address all of their concerns, and if we were not able to change them or fix them, then we were able to better communicate with them and they could understand why certain things could not be changed. They are a valuable resource for us as a company, so we want them to be happy”, she said.

Words to be memorized:

Despair — desperate — отчаяние, упадок духа; безнадежный, бесперспективный

Resort — курорт

To wind up — кончать To cheat — обманывать

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Overtime work — сверхурочная работа To violate — нарушать, попирать

To dock — сокращать, урезать Upstate — северная часть штата

Interest — капиталовложения, процент, доля, прибыль Fine — взыскание, штраф, пеня

To appeal — обжаловать, подавать апелляционную жалобу Ruling — судебное решение, постановление

Abuse — оскорбление, жестокое обращение, злоупотребление Available — доступный, имеющийся в наличии

To dig out — находить, изыскивать, выкапывать To issue — издавать

To incur — следовать из, подвергаться Quarters — жилище, помещение, квартира Rent — аренда

To approach — обращаться (с просьбой, предложением, жалобой) To address — принимать меры, реагировать.

Tasks:

I.Questions:

1)Why do the young workers come to summer resort towns in the USA?

2)Why are they upset?

3)What was the New York state decision on the case?

4)Did all companies agree with the decision?

5)Why did the guest workers fall into debt?

6)How did Six Flags amusement center deal with the students’ complaint?

II. Translate from Russian into English:

1)Молодежь из стран Восточной Европы, Азии и Латинской Америки ежегодно приезжает в США, чтобы заработать денег и усовершенствовать свой английский.

2)Среди “сезонных” рабочих много студентов, артистов, спортсменов и даже высококвалифицированных работников.

3)Работодатели часто обманывают своих подчиненных, платя им меньше денег и заставляя их работать сверхурочно.

4)Рабочие обратились с жалобой на руководство компании.

5)Правоохранительные органы, расследовавшие дело, обязали компанию заплатить огромный штраф и выплатить рабочим зарплату.

6)Билет в США стоил больше, чем я смогла заработать, сказала девушка из Тайваня.

7)Когда я жил в Москве, мы вдвоем жили в квартире.

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8)Летом цена на аренду жилья в курортных городах гораздо выше, чем зимой.

9)Представители компании заявили, что подадут апелляционную жалобу на власти штата.

10)Власть никак не отреагировала на тревоги и жалобы населения.

Text 3

U.S. Lacks System to Track Expired Visas

Eight years after the Sept.11, 2001, terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country.

New concern has been focused on that security loophole recently, as Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian who had overstayed his tourist visa, was accused in court of plotting to blow up a Dallas skyscraper.

Last year alone, 2.9 million foreign visitors on temporary visas like Smadi’s entered the country but never o cially left. Immigration o - cials say, they suspect that several hundred thousand of them overstayed their visas. Over all about 40 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States came on legal visas and overstayed.

Mr. Smadi’s case had brought renewed calls from both parties in Congress for Department of Homeland Security o cials to complete a universal electronic exit monitoring system.

Since the Sept.11 attacks, the immigration authorities, with more than $1 billion from Congress, have greatly improved and expanded their systems to monitor arriving foreigners. But despite congressional authorizations, there are no biometric inspections or a systematic follow-up to confirm that foreign visitors have left the US.

Homeland security o cials caution that universal exit monitoring is a daunting and costly goal, mainly because of the nation’s long and busy land borders, with more than one million crossings every day. The wrong exit plan, they said, could clog trade, disrupt border cities and overwhelm immigration agencies with information they could not e ectively use.

Since 2004, homeland security o cials have put systems in place to check all foreigners as they arrive, whether by air, sea or land. Customs

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o cers now take fingerprints and photographs of most visitors, instantly comparing them to law enforcement watch list data-bases.

The current system relies on departing foreigners to turn in a paper stub when they leave. But many travelers fail to check out because they do not know how to do so. Many still are believed to have overstayed intentionally.

The immigration authorities have a separate system for keeping track of foreigners who, unlike Mr Smadi, come on student visas. That system has proved e ective at confirming that the students have stayed in school and do not overstay their visas.

Immigration analysts said that it remained up to law enforcement o cials to thwart terrorism suspects who do not have records that would draw scrutiny before they enter the United States.

Words to be memorized:

Despite — несмотря на, вопреки чему-либо Mandates — поручение, наказ

Reliable — to rely on — надежный, достоверный; надеяться To verify — подтверждать, удостоверять

Loophole — лазейка, увертка

To overstay — загоститься, просрочить (визу) To plot — организовывать, замышлять

To blow up — взорвать

To estimate — оценивать, подсчитать

To expand — расширять, распространять Authorization — одобрение, санкция, разрешение

Follow-up — дополнительные данные, завершение, доработка Daunting — пугающий, обескураживающий

Costly — дорогостоящий Crossing — пересечение

Instantly — мгновенно, в ту же минуту Stub — корешок билета

Watch list — список ценных бумаг или людей, за которыми ведется наблюдение

Current — действующий, текущий To depart — отбывать, уезжать

To keep track — следить за…

Intention — intentional — intentionally — намерение; преднамеренный, умышленный; преднамеренно

To thwart — препятствовать, преграждать

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Scrutiny — исследование, наблюдение

Clog — препятствовать, мешать

Disrupt — разрушать, подрывать

Tasks:

I.Questions:

1)What event focused the attention of the American government on the shortage of a system verifying that foreign visitors have left the country?

2)How many visitors overstay regularly their visas in the USA?

3)How much money did the USA have to spend to monitor arriving foreigners?

4)Why is it di cult to create a system of exit monitoring?

5)What do the customs officers do to check all those who arrive in the country?

6)What is the current system of exit monitoring based on?

7)Why do many visitors fail to check out?

8)Do the immigration authorities use the same system?

9)What is the opinion of the immigration analysts on the problem of thwarting terrorism suspects?

II. Translate from Russian into English:

1)Несмотря на множественные атаки террористов, в США нет надежной системы, преграждающей путь терроризму.

2)Проследить за потоком въезжающих и выезжающих из страны — крайне трудно.

3)Необходима система биометрических данных, чтобы найти преступника.

4)Многие люди остаются после окончания срока визы в США намеренно.

5)Число незаконных иммигрантов пугающе высоко.

6)Чтобы отследить поток беженцев необходимо улучшить систему контроля.

7)Люди, выезжающие из США, сдают корешки билетов, которые они получают при въезде.

8)Теперь таможенные служащие снимают отпечатки пальцев и фотографируют всех, кто въехал в страну.

9)Человек, подозреваемый во взрыве супермаркета, был пойман в момент пересечения границы.

10)Тщательное наблюдение может препятствовать свободной торговле.

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Text 4

Age: Seeking a Generation Balance in the Workplace

Eighty percent of all job advertisements specify an age range among the requirements. In the I T a special Law — the Age Discrimination in Employment Act — protects people from employment discrimination based on age. American employers can neither stipulate age preferences nor ask candidates about their age or date of birth during interviews or at any other stage. This is also true of most European countries.

According to the Russian Constitution and labour code, everyone has the same right to realize their labour potential. According to the law employers do not have the right to reject an application on account of the candidate’s age with the exception of pilots, astronauts, rescue workers, law-enforcement o cers and other similar occupations. In reality, however, the age of a candidate often plays a role in the recruitment process, and discrimination has always existed.

Large, successful companies avoid mentioning the preferred age of a candidate in a job advertisement. But all of them prefer a person under 45. Recruitment agencies have agreed that it is di cult for good specialists to find a job once they are more than 40–45 years old. But no company admits the real reason for passing over such a candidate.

“The employer who knows the law about discrimination and human rights will never mention this reason to the candidate”, said a consultant at Ancor's corporate clients department.

Such attitudes are illegal, but can be well-grounded. The question is whether it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks.

For example, in an IT company that has young sta who have informal relationships and common interests, a woman in her fifties with the required skills applying for a vacancy could create a dilemma.

“Of course she may be able to do everything that is needed in the project, but such a new employee will not fit into the team well, and her joining the sta could cause problems within the project”, said the General Manager of Arcadia.

Age discrimination can also be a factor in the jobs that include heavy physical work. Employers may not want to recruit an elderly person for such work due to the worker's health.

Not all reservations are well-founded, however.

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