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May 18th, 2008
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May 7th, 2008 issue

Visa victims?

I’m tired of reading articles about these poor people who are now having problems with the Schengen zone rules (“Schengen’s teaching hurdles,” Careers, April 23–29).
People who work here without work visas are in violation of the law. Working without a visa in the United States or United Kingdom is also illegal.
Please stop portraying these people as victims. The message here is that the government should be looking into language schools that are employing workers without visas.
John Crane
Prague
When it comes to the new Schengen rules, I think the main problem is the lack of consistency between the Interior Ministry and individual embassies.
Most embassies offer vague information. How is someone supposed to comply with the rules when no one seems to be willing to agree on what the rules are? Literally no one I know in Prague who applied for a work visa had the exact same experience.
Sharon Angela Staniforth
Orlando, Florida
I am sorry the writer who experienced discrimination in Prague has had such a bad time (“Stop the discrimination against foreigners,” Opinion, April 16–22). I am a foreigner who has lived here for three years, and I have not encountered such troubles.
But I have lived in other countries as well, and, to be honest, the Czech Foreigners’ Police office is no different from its counterparts in Hungary, Germany or the United States (and to my knowledge a few other places) — they just wear different uniforms and speak different languages!
Mathis Haas
Prague
Cheap labor
Oh, Czechs: Please take a good hard look at the United States, particularly Texas, and think hard about why you invite immigrants to your country (“The need to welcome workers,” Opinion, April 16–22).
When speaking of immigrants and cheap labor, “They do the jobs that nobody else wants,” sounds very hollow and short-sighted. Capitalism isn’t just growth for growth’s sake. If there isn’t enough labor, the market will correct itself.
If you artificially supply a labor force (and artificially lower interest rates beyond what the market can bear) you’re just delaying the inevitable. The market will always correct itself, in little increments or in big ones such as is the downfall of the United States today.
I was struck on my trip to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland by how tour guides might say things like, “In 1989, we got rid of communism, and we’re trying to catch up [with the rest of the world].” Take just a little solace in the fact that you haven’t been sucked into as much capitalism-without-morality as the rest of the West.
Valerie Stagaman
Dallas, Texas


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