They Were Promised a Taste of America. They Got Abuse and Exploitation. NYT | Top Stories By: Amy Julia Harris 20 September 2025 at 15:00 Every year, tens of thousands of young people are sent on visas to toil as farmworkers, housekeepers and office interns, all in the name of cultural exchange. © Armend Nimani for The New York TimesBehare Mlinaku signed up for the cultural exchange program expecting to receive expert training. Instead, she said, all she did was manual labor.