Since 2018, there's been a 69% increase in children being illegally employed by companies in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
This increase in child labor exploitation in the country is especially apparent in the increasing migrant children population.
Since 2021, there’s been an especially large growth of children, mostly from Central America, coming to the U.S. unaccompanied. In just the last two years, more than 250,000 children have entered the United States unaccompanied.
In February, the New York Times reported an exposé on this exploitation, and they found that a large number of immigrant children were working in dangerous jobs in violation of child labor laws. This is happening across the country and across every industry. It’s seen in well-known brands and corporations: Walmart, Target, Ford, Whole Foods, J.Crew. The list goes on. They’re working in slaughterhouses, construction, and roofing. Many are spending late hours with dangerous machinery in assembly lines and working in other tiring and hazardous situations.
The federal department in charge of supporting and protecting these children is the Department of Health and Human Services (H.H.S). One of the HHS’s roles is to vet the people who are meant to take in and protect the children; these people are called sponsors, and they can range from family members to strangers. However, due to the influx of immigrant children and resulting pressure to quickly move children out of shelters, the vetting process of sponsors has been rushed and there isn’t much follow-up care after a child is released to a sponsor.
Sponsors are required to enroll children in school. Thus, many migrant children find themselves having to balance heavy workloads in addition to schooling; in some cases, sponsors provide misleading information to the children before they arrive, resulting in some children not being enrolled in school at all. The children end up working full-time. There are many cases where the children, unable to balance a grueling labor burden and education, end up dropping out of school to work full-time. It’s estimated that about two-thirds of unaccompanied migrant children end up working full-time.
There are cases where sponsors take advantage of the children in other ways. Many children find themselves indebted to their sponsors for living expenses and smuggling fees. In one case, a sponsor demanded repayments for filling out H.H.S. paperwork, clothes, and dinner. Law enforcement was called, and this sponsor was found guilty of smuggling a child for financial gain. However, this type of response is very rare; in many cases, law enforcement is unwilling to look into these cases of migrant child labor exploitation.
The effects of this labor exploitation of children are grim. UNICEF states that “child labor limits access to education and harms a child’s physical, mental, and social growth.” Many children drop out of school or find themselves too exhausted to keep up in the classroom. Children also get severe injuries in their workplaces, and some end up dying while working.
Since this exposé, the federal government has announced that they would increase their efforts to ensure the children’s safety and hold companies accountable. However, this child exploitation is still going on. Not only that but there is still a significant number of children who are experiencing labor exploitation in both the US and across the world. It's important to recognize the struggles and difficult circumstances many children face on a daily basis and not stay silent about this crisis.
References:
Dreier, H. (2023, February 25). Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html
Radfar, Asgharzadeh, S., Quesada, F., & Filip, I. (2018). Challenges and perspectives of child labor. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 27(1), 17–20. https://doi.org/10.4103/ipj.ipj_105_14
Unicef. Child labour. https://www.unicef.org/protection/child-labour
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