DOX: Government disclosure shows extent of Scientology's reliance on cheap foreign labor - 2016-01-13

DOX: Government disclosure shows extent of Scientology's reliance on cheap foreign labor January 13, 2016, Tony Ortega, Underground Bunker

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In 2009, researcher Jeff Jacobsen wrote about Scientology's documented problems bringing foreigners to the United States to work in its "Sea Organization." Anecdotally, ex-Scientologists say that the church relies heavily on foreigners to accept jobs under the bizarre working conditions of the Sea Org, which requires signing a billion-year contract and working 16-hour days, seven days a week, often at menial labor jobs, and for just pennies an hour.

Scientology brings such workers to this country under a special visa — the Non-Immigrant Religious Worker or R-1 visa — under the idea that they're coming here to perform religious duties at a bona fide tax exempt religious organization, which are the requirements to qualify. Some of those applications had been denied by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and had been appealed, and those appeal documents were public. Based on them, Jacobsen found that Scientology had a hard time explaining how Sea Org employees, who often work in menial or clerk positions, should be considered "religious" workers. He also found cases where the workers themselves were bewildered by the entire process, and that they found themselves virtually indentured servants in the US, making next to nothing and pretending to be "religious" workers when often they were just doing janitorial work.

But how big was this issue? For years, we've heard stories of large numbers of immigrants being brought to the US to work in the Sea Org and staff Scientology facilities, particularly its "spiritual mecca," the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida.

Wikipedia cite:

{{cite news | author = Tony Ortega | title = DOX: Government disclosure shows extent of Scientology's reliance on cheap foreign labor | url = https://tonyortega.org/2016/01/13/dox-government-disclosure-shows-extent-of-scientologys-reliance-on-cheap-foreign-labor/ | work = Underground Bunker | date = January 13, 2016 | accessdate = August 21, 2017 }}