Nanny: Diplomat Made Me a Slave

Even with high unemployment, Americans walk off too-hard job

(NEWSER) - John Harold is trying to do the right thing when it comes to harvesting his 1,000-acre Colorado farm, by hiring only legal foreign workers and, this summer, offering more positions to unemployed locals. But “it didn’t take me six hours to realize I’d made a heck of a mistake,” Harold tells the New York Times . That's how long it took for the local workers he'd hired to start walking off the job, many because the work was too hard. Harold salvaged his season only by rushing in new workers from Mexico. More»

(NEWSER) - Facing a tough job market, immigrants are returning home around the world, reversing historic migration patterns and giving up on income that once fed their families, the Wall Street Journal reports. With construction workers going back to Mexico and domestic servants to the Philippines, wealthy nations are also bound to feel the pinch, losing low-cost labor and valued home-buyers, analysts say. More»

Daughter feared immigration inquiry

(NEWSER) - A London woman hid her dead mother’s body in a freezer for two decades, apparently out of fear of immigration authorities, reports the Daily Mirror. The daughter, now 83, was worried that if the public knew her mother had died, officials would find out she’d been in the UK illegally, neighbors said. “I’ve lived here all my life and I never saw her mum,” said one. More»

Cops aren't saying how he did it

(NEWSER) - An illegal immigrant was nabbed in England clinging to the outside of a Eurostar rail car, reports the Independent. The trains reach speeds of 186 mph. The train originated in Brussels and traveled through France. Police provided no details on how the man survived the risky journey. Immigrants sneaking into England are a continuing problem. Last week a French official vowed to destroy a squatter camp of people waiting for a chance to steal across the English Channel from northern France. More»

They screamed an hour before driver halted

(NEWSER) - Police yesterday discovered the bodies of 54 Burmese migrant workers who suffocated in a truck heading across the border to Thailand. Workers crammed in the 7-by-20-foot space, almost all women, say when they finally managed to alert the driver, he fled. Each worker paid $314 to be smuggled into Thailand, according to some of the 67 travelers who survived the ordeal, reports CNN. More»