# Manicures and servitude **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 5, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976 "2009-07-05T14:50:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mithril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mithril/32/3517_2.png) [@Mithril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithril)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/1 "2009-07-05T14:50:51Z")
The other day, I heard a radio caller (with no special qualifications) say that the employees of the local Rhode Island manicure shops are generally Vietnamese immigrants who are given no money for the work they do, only room and board. The owners essentially have the same business model as a pimp does: limit the employee’s access to money, education, and services and keep the cash for himself. They may, or may not, be paying the nail pimp back for smuggling them into America, making them something like indentured servants. Is there any reason to believe that this is more than the inaccurate ramblings of a radio show caller? Has it been demonstrated that a good number of the manicurists are illegal immigrants who are kept under the thumb of the nail guy? ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/2 "2009-07-05T17:45:53Z")
I would bet that some of the manicurists are working under those conditions. Like some restaurant employees, hotel employees, etc do. It’s by far not the majority, just as in the other industries, but it happens. I used to live in an immigrant community and knew a couple of people in indentured servant positions. It was a sad situation. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/3 "2009-07-06T00:25:55Z")
While I’m not saying it _never_ happens, that sound like one of those urban legend stories that goes around. It’s the same story, but always with a different profession. I wouldn’t put too much stock into it. ---
**Author:** ![Mithril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mithril/32/3517_2.png) [@Mithril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithril)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/4 "2009-07-06T01:00:28Z")
Well, it’s a relief that nobody is chiming in to say that it’s a horrible business that I shouldn’t support, because I was planning on going for my first pedicure tomorrow. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/5 "2009-07-06T01:46:59Z")
Just make sure you are ok with a minority performing an act that historically has indicated subservience. I can’t get pedicures. All my white guilt surfaces. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/6 "2009-07-06T01:58:23Z")
What is true is that 37% of all nail parlors in the U.S. are owned and operated by Vietnamese Americans: > **[Vietnamese Americans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_American)** > > Vietnamese Americans (Vietnamese: Người Mỹ gốc Việt) are Americans of Vietnamese ancestry. They comprise approximately half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American ethnic group following Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, and Indian Americans. There are approximately 2.2 million people of Vietnamese descent residing in the U.S. > The Vietnamese community in the United States was minimal until the exodus of South Vietnamese refugees to the country following the end ... ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/7 "2009-07-06T02:54:56Z")
> [@Auntbeast](#): > > Just make sure you are ok with a minority performing an act that historically has indicated subservience. > > I can’t get pedicures. All my white guilt surfaces. So go to a shi-shi salon in a majority white neighborhood. You won’t have any problem getting a mani-pedi from a non-minority. ---
**Author:** ![Never\_Say\_Dice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee59a6/32.png) [@Never\_Say\_Dice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_Say_Dice)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/8 "2009-07-06T03:04:37Z")
It seems to be fairly common on the west coast. San Francisco has exposures all the time of illegals of every Asian immigrant community being brought under false pretenses and made to work under threat of exposure and arrest. Not pretty, but it’s been going on since gold rush days. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/9 "2009-07-06T03:11:09Z")
> [@Auntbeast](#): > > Just make sure you are ok with a minority performing an act that historically has indicated subservience. > > I can’t get pedicures. All my white guilt surfaces. What if I’m also a minority? Is it okay then? And how okay are you with waxing? Sure, it’s a minority performing an act for money, but it’s an act that causes pain to the inflictee. I like to see it as a way of compensating for any liberal guilt. Giving those not in power a little opportunity to inflict pain on the (wo)Man. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/10 "2009-07-06T04:55:07Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > So go to a shi-shi salon in a majority white neighborhood. You won’t have any problem getting a mani-pedi from a non-minority. I live in an extremely white county. I’ve been to 3 nail salons, not a whitey in the bunch. 🙂 I’m also extremely ticklish which adds to my discomfort with pedis. I don’t do waxing either, for different reasons. (I hate pain) I will say that my nail tech for 10 years was a Vietnamese guy. Best nail tech I ever had. I miss him terribly. I do believe he owned his salon and the only other employees were relatives. ---
**Author:** ![Mithril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mithril/32/3517_2.png) [@Mithril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithril)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/11 "2009-07-06T18:27:32Z")
I wound up going to a place where all the employees were Vietnamese, but they didn’t seem downtrodden. The nail tech I had was wearing an engagement ring, so I doubt that they are being locked down in their off time. Thanks, everyone. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/12 "2009-07-06T19:26:18Z")
At my nail salon (in, as \*\*HazelNutCoffee \*\*once put it, a “sketchtastic” strip mall in Uptown), the employees wear a reasonable amount of expensive jewelry, eat tasty looking homemade meals in the back room between clients, have their happy children in private school uniforms come in after school, are always clean and well-groomed and polite, never look terribly overtired or overworked… If it’s servitude, it’s servitude about as grueling as when I worked at Blockbuster. It _is_ a Vietnamese owned and run salon…sort of. The owner was actually born and raised in Evanston, IL and graduated from Evanston Township High School. Oddly enough, he speaks with just the tiniest lilt of an accent, and I can’t figure out if it’s a put on for his job, or if it’s because he spends most of his day speaking with his cousins and aunties who are more recently from Vietnam and more heavily accented. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/13 "2009-07-06T19:59:32Z")
There’s no way these places are all fronts for human trafficking. DOJ claims most of the human trafficking is for the sex trade, not mildly profitable nail salons: > **[Office of Justice Programs | Office of Justice Programs](https://ojp.gov/)** > > OJP is the federal government’s leading source of funding and research to strengthen the justice system, support law enforcement, and enhance victim services. Sounds like an urban legend to me. If youre going to go through the trouble of kidnapping (which is what human trafficking is) then why are you wasting your time with trying to make 2% of your money in legitimate business instead of 2000% dealing drugs or sex? Im sure a lot of these people are family who work there just to have a place to live in America while they work out citizenship and better jobs, but I would not call that human trafficking or slavery. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manicures-and-servitude/501976/14 "2009-07-07T13:50:26Z")
What in that link indicated that most human trafficking is for the sex trade? I read the .pdf, which discussed a substantial amount of forced labor. I don’t disagree that most is for the sex trade, but the numbers I saw indicated about 25% forced labor. Law enforcement is going to be a lot more involved in prosecuting prostitution than labor law in apparently legitimate businesses. Why would someone choose to traffic someone into forced labor rather than prostitution? They may prefer to engage in a legitimate business rather than an illegal one and the labor practices involved may be acceptable in their home country and culture, but unacceptable to us. Here is an example of a nail salon prosecution in Pennsylvania: [Three Charged in Nail Salon Trafficking Case in PA |](http://johnbowe.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/three-charged-in-nail-salon-trafficking-case-in-pa/) This Time magazine article discusses working conditions for nail techs in general: [http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1648055,00.html](http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1648055,00.html)