As of July 15^th of next year, parents in the Kingdom of the Netherlands who contract the services of foreign au pairs will not only be expected to pay for the cost of Dutch language classes; they will also be prohibited from scheduling their temporary live-in nannies for more than 20 hours per week. This government ruling has come under heavy criticism from several political parties in the European nation.

 

According to a report published by DutchNews.nl, legislators in the Netherlands are not happy with the stance taken by the Ministries of Social Affairs and Justice. The protesters complain that the new rules actually affect the au pairs that the government is seeking to protect and that it imposes unnecessary strain on the parents who contract them. Under current Dutch legislation, au pairs are not expected to work for more than 30 hours each week, but this measure is routinely abused with at least a dozen unpaid hours tacked on to the work schedule.

 

Political ideology in the Netherlands has been in a state of flux for quite a few years; this ruling plus its ensuing reaction exemplify the conflict between the traditional desire for social fairness and a libertarian-like desire to minimize government oversight and functions. Critics of the law complain that the government is looking at old data, that it is not a good idea to force Dutch language lessons when the au pairs are only in the country for a short time, and that the government is wasting time enacting new rules that are not going to be enforced anyway.

 

In Costa Rica, the cultural exchange programs that coordinate au pair contracting and travel to the United States tell applicants that their room and board will be taken care of, but they add that they could work up to 45 hours each week, which does not leave them with that much time to learn about local culture or take formal educational courses. Word-of-mouth warnings about potential affairs and sexual relationships with employers often discourage au pair applicants from Costa Rica, who are often required to be attractive females between the ages of 18 to 26 in order to qualify.

 

In 2010, British newspaper the Daily Mail reviewed the book Au Pair, authored by an English anthropologist and a Slovak ethnologist who compiled interviews with au pairs working in the United Kingdom being forced to work as maids, gardeners and home repair technicians as well as being sexually accosted, mostly by men but sometimes by women as well.

 

Au pair agencies in Costa Rica used to be more active in the early 21^st century as migration by Ticos to the U.S. became more common. The publication of the 2004 book The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade by Victor Malarek included a visit to center in Costa Rica that rescued young women from sex trafficking; that book told of young women from Eastern Europe trafficked to Germany, the UK and the U.S. under the pretenses of working as au pairs to improve their language skills. Since the publication of that book, the recruitment of Ticas for sex work abroad has become more upfront and voluntary, and it has switched to agencies that negotiate modeling contracts.