…apparently there’s US, Australian and Canadian shows. They provide an interesting contrast.
The US sure does seem unduly hung up on denying people with visit Visas (if that’s right) entry on the grounds they think they’re going to work or stay past their alloted time. And we’re not talking about Hispanic farmers (The other two shows concentrate on that),it’s like ANYONE doing anything. A dutch guy doing construction for a month. A woman getting paid to sing…etc…
Let’s veer off a second cause I had an idea. Has their been any legislation or ideas put forward to let people travel freely (among signatory nations of said legislation) to do certain kinds of low-level jobs? Like if I wanted to go to Canada and dig ditches…I’d like to. If someone from mexico wanted to come here and bus tables…etc…that sort of thing.
Another non-shocking contrasts in the American version. Everyone seems to be armed.
I haven’t seen too much of the Canadian or Australian version , but I will say…the people in them, representatives of their govt., arn’t particularly more compassionate than their American counterparts. And I’m seeing a lot more contraband seized that was hidden by airport personnel.
I’ve seen a lot of the Australian Customs show while in the UK, and an episode or two of the Canadian one.
From what I’ve seen, the Canadians stop Americans from bringing guns over the border. While the Australians catch drug-smugglers and other suspect types, they also bag tons of contraband food items brought in by Asian visitors who aren’t criminals, but ordinary people who seem to think they won’t be able to get anything to eat in Oz.
New Zealand’s Border Patrol show generally features clueless tourists being fined for smuggling in food products. As an agricultural island nation we take biosecurity pretty seriously.
I think the UK and the New Zealand ones show much friendlier and more forgiving custom guards. They still enforce the law, but they’re not as abrupt, they remain more good natured, I think.
They are def interesting shows to watch, if only to see the differences.
(Also makes me wish I was an Asian traveller and could just shake my head and say, ‘no english’, to get out of difficult questions. But more and more they just fetch a translator nowadays!)
A scheme that tries to tie people to specific jobs or sorts of jobs is wide open to abuse. In the UK, where a family (often rich Saudis) have been allowed to bring in a domestic servant, the fact that that was the only reason the servant was in the country made it very difficult for them to escape an abusive employer, until the law was changed. Likewise, say, Indian and Nepali labourers working on buildings for the 2022 World Cup in Dubai, and there are plenty of similar situations around the world.
But freedom of movement for work is a founding principle of the EU; though some of those who came to the UK from the post-Communist states are specifically recruited for seasonal farm work and found themselves stuck in tough situations, legally (if not necessarily practically) they are free to move on.
The UK also has a time-limited working holiday visa, which necessarily means the jobs are likely to be low-level and seasonal.
We also have similar programmes (though our immigration and customs agencies are separate)
I’ve never watched the shows but hearing peoples stories, the Canadian border guards are incredibly strict to anyone with a criminal record, even refusing to allow someone who was found Not Guilty in the country because it showed up on his record. If you have any criminal record it’s basically you’re not allowed into Canada at all.
The thing that often strikes me is the cluelessness of most of the malefactors who are caught trying to smuggle contraband. But then, if they weren’t clueless they wouldn’t be spotted and wouldn’t end up on the programme in the first place.
I love these shows! I’ve also noted the Canadians are just as, if not more, strict than their American counterparts.
The joke I hear is something like: if you’re Canadian and you’re an asshole, they make you work at the border.
ETA: one thing that constantly seems to come up in the Australian/New Zealand ones is cigarettes. And they’re incredibly strict about it. I guess their cigarette taxes are extremely high?
Not necessarily. If you have a criminal record (which you would not have if you were found Not Guilty), you’re disallowed. But a Not Guilty finding means you have no record; and thus, can come in, subject to normal border checks (How long will you be here, why are you coming, anything to declare, etc.)
I like these shows. I always get a kick out of the Americans at the Canadian border who do not declare their guns, get caught, and then claim, “Well, where I’m from, you never admit you have guns.” Well, at the Canadian border, you’re not where you’re from, and you’re in another country with a different set of laws and with a different constitution.
I see these cases at the local courthouse about once a month.
I feel sorry for the dumbasses who left a small baggie of cocaine in their purse. I even feel for the people caught smuggling a couple of bricks in cornmeal packages because holy shit…you are going away for a long long long time.
I don’t feel for people who declare $40 of goods and have $800 of goods in their belongings.
Until last summer I hadn’t flown internationally in at least a decade, and having watched these shows I was a little paranoid about Customs, but going into Barcelona was an extremely long line but it moved surprisingly quickly, and coming back US Customs was surprisingly trusting. I had a bunch of candy and stuff I’d brought back for the office and family, and I carefully filled out the form, making sure to write down everything and what it cost. Customs agent looked at it for literally half a second, asked what food I had, I told him it was candy, he stamped my form and I was through. I offered to show it to him; he had absolutely no interest. I guess I’ve got an honest face.
(I know, they’ve got limited time to process an unlimited number of people, so anyone who’s not acting super shady will probably breeze through like I did.)
Actually no, that isn’t. That is to do with the ability to move between countries without border checks. The UK for instance is not a member of the Schengen agreement so is treated differently and has border checks.
The right to work does not apply to just low level jobs, its right to work. Its the EU Single Market which allows this.
For instance during the brexit nonsense, the UK will be leaving the Single market and no UK citizen will have a right to work in the EU anymore *. For some reason a lot of (Trumpesque) crazy people seem to think thats a good thing.
They may have rights due to having worked or lived in a single country for that country or other EU rights applied for. But not the right due to their passport.
The places which tend to focus on food are Australia and New Zealand (and inside the US, Hawaii, but that isn’t international and never quite sure what).
The EU is less bothered depending on what country it comes from and what it is. If the US had recently had outbreaks of Foot and Mouth, they’d be pulling out the meat. But they don’t have the normal fruit and veg restrictions.
There are well documented cases of things brought to Australia and New Zealand which have caused havoc with their environment and argriculture. They scan your luggage for food, all of the luggage, no exceptions and yet various asian people try and smuggle in the more “interesting” as well as the mundane (cooked insects for instance). Which makes for good telly.
If you see the Irish version, its usually about people “smuggling” cigarettes within the EU, due to wide range of price variations. Which is technically not smuggling, they’re duty paid inside the EU. However, some sort of sense used to be applied to this which meant up to 3000 cigarettes were fine (15 cartons of 10 packs of 20) if they were for your own use. There’s a lot of nonsense spoken in that programme and I suspect the legality of what they’re doing is not valid. I suspect its all for show and attempted to limit the legal import by giving out wrong facts. But I just switch that show over because of that…
Not just the US. In the Canada version there are numerous incidents of people being denied entry because they can’t prove they have enough funds to last the length of their visa, or because the person the applicant is going to be staying with let it slip that they were coming to work for them. In one episode the group being turned away was a band claiming to be there as tourists but planning on performing in a show.
The really eye opening thing about those shows is that even though the US gets singled out for it, all countries have strict rules about who can come in and for how long.
