MA 7-50, an Application for Alien Employment, available through the U.S. consuls abroad, or the Immigration offices in this country, or of the State employment services offices around the country. There are some 2,500 of them.

The alien then submits this application, either to the U.S. consul or the Immigration Service. It is forwarded to the Department of Labor regional office. We have 10 regional offices around the country. and the regional office responsible for the intended area of residence makes a determination on that application as to availability or nonavailability.

EMPLOYER STATEMENT

Under the sixth preference of the Eastern Hemisphere, for aliens seeking admissions in skilled or unskilled work, it is necessary that an employer apply for the alien and he gets the application, a job offer, plus the qualification statement of the alien, and submits that to the local office of the state employment service.

In the area of intended residence, it then goes to a regional office for a determination. The Western Hemisphere, under the law, requires a labor certification except for the spouses and unmarried children.

And, in passing, I might point out that although it is not in our area of responsibility, that the Western Hemisphere has a backlog of visas of approximately 2 years and 3 or 4 months, I think, at this time. It is something that needs to be considered, as you advise your people, you know, as to whether or not they could come immediately. under these conditions.

I think, Mr. Chairman, that that is a very brief overview of the labor certification requirements.

MS. ANDERSON [presiding]. Thank you, very much.

The chairman had to leave for a few minutes. I do not know if you heard the two bells a few minutes ago. Those two lights up there meant that he had to go over to the House floor to vote. He will be back in about 5 to 10 minutes.

Could we hear now from Mr. Cleveland, who is the president of Meridian House, to give us a brief overview of the activities there? STATEMENT OF ROBERT G. CLEVELAND, PRESIDENT, MERIDIAN HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C., ACCOMPANIED BY MRS. DONALD JEFFRIES OF THE HOSPITALITY AND INFORMATION SERVICE, AND MRS. M. MCCLOSKEY, OF INTERNATIONAL VISITORS SERVICE

Mr. CLEVELAND. Thank you, very much.

I want to start by saying I guess I am speaking for the private sector, you might say. I seem to be the only one on the list, in that respect.

I want to say how much we appreciate the committee's initiative which started in 1973 of showing concern for the problems of the diplomatic and other international residents of the area.

We think this particular meeting is a very imaginative idea, and I do hope that it will be of real help to the diplomatic representatives and other guests of the United States living in the Washington area. I am particularly glad to be here because as I testified in 1973, the

Bicentennial is very much in the thoughts and minds of the thousand or more volunteers who in one way or another serve through Meridian House and its affiliates, foreign guests in Washington.

MERIDIAN HOUSE

Now, generally, when somebody asks me about-well, what is Meridian House? They sometimes think it is a hotel for young ladies. And it is not a name-that-just by itself; it is not a self-descriptive

name.

I generally ask them, you know, have you got about a half an hour, and I will try to explain Meridian House to you. But, time does not permit that today. And I will say, generally speaking, this, that Meridian House is a nonprofit organization, privately financed, in many respects, under the guidance of a distinguished board of trustees whose sole concern is for the welfare of visitors to Washington and the United States from abroad.

It actually operates as a form of a holding company which provides management and administrative and financial services to the operating affiliates.

Now, the two operating affiliates that are of concern to this meeting, one of them is THIS, The Hospitality and Information Service, which is represented by Mrs. Donald Jeffres, on my right, and on your left; and the other one is the International Visitors Service, IVIS, which is represented by Mrs. McCloskey on my left, and your right.

So, if you have some questions regarding the operations of those two organizations perhaps it would be well to direct them to them.

THE HOSPITALITY AND INFORMATION SERVICE-THIS

But, as far as THIS is concerned, its job is to supplement the services provided by protocol and other governmental services, to our valued guests here in Washington, the diplomatic community. It has been in existence for-how long now? For 14 years, and it is still growing in terms of the numbers of services it provides. And I believe it has found great acceptance in the community and I am very proud of the great work that THIS has done.

INTERNATIONAL VISITORS SERVICE COUNCIL-IVIS

The International Visitors Service Council is primarily concerned with providing information and other services to the general visitor to Washington, and its prime preoccupation during the last 2 years has been with the Bicentennial, getting not only itself geared up to the Bicentennial, but getting Washington geared up to the Bicentennial and trying to get every institution in this town to recognize that there are going to be more and more and more guests from abroad here.

It has not exactly been a voice crying in the wilderness, by any means, because it has received a great deal of interest and cooperation. But it is the primary voice, really, in the councils of government, and private sector, regarding the Bicentennial, which speaks for the needs of the international visitor, and we are very hopeful that its efforts will bear fruit, over time.

Now, as I said, these are volunteer organizations. They have very small staffs. The people who work there do it because they want to, and because they enjoy being helpful to foreign guests.

FOREIGN STUDENT SERVICE COUNCIL

I might also mention two more things. One is that Bob Wade is not here. We have a very closely affiliated organization of the Foreign Student Service Council, who focuses primarily on the needs of the some 6,000 or so students from abroad in the Washington area.

They provide them information. They organize hospitality for them, home stays, and they have a number of seminars. And, although they are not part of the Meridian House organization, we have a kind of a brotherly interest in them.

Now, just to finish up, one of the problems that any private organization such as Meridian House has, is money. And we are, frankly, very much concerned that because we need very badly to expand our services during the Bicentennial period. So far we have not gotten the kind of financing that we need, either from the private sector or elsewhere, to really enable us to do the job that we need-that we feel we should do.

But I always feel that I cannot avoid mentioning that disagreeable subject whenever I have a platform. But, regardless of whether we have adequate money or not to do the job we want to, we are here to serve you, and we are going to do our very best to continue, not just through the Bicentennial, but in the years to come.

Thank you.

[The prepared information regarding Meridian House follows:] MERIDIAN HOUSE INTERNATIONAL, DOORWAY TO THE U.S.A., Washington, D.C.

THE ACTIVITIES OF MERIDIAN HOUSE INTERNATIONAL AND ITS AFFILIATES ARE DESCRIBED BELOW

Meridian House International (MHI), a non-profit corporation under the direction of a distinguished Board of Trustees, provides management and fiscal services to the following six affiliates.

Washington International Center (WIC), under Department of State contract, provides orientation, hospitality and assistance, including seminars on contemporary American society, for government-sponsored visitors to the United States. It has an experienced staff and a corps of dedicated, trained volunteers. International Visitors Service Council (IVIS) operates an information and reception center in downtown Washington, offers home hospitality and escort service, and maintains a language bank for all international visitors to Washington, including those privately and publicly sponsored. Professional programs for groups can be arranged. The multilingual volunteer corps provides language assistance in 40 languages.

The Hospitality and Information Service (THIS) assists diplomatic families in adapting to life in Washington. Its volunteers provide information, guidance, hospitality and a great variety of activities to the diplomatic corps.

Visitor Program Service (VPS), under a Department of State grant, provides full program services to short-term international guests for their visits to the United States.

National Council for Community Services to International Visitors (COSERV) is the national organization of service groups in 80 communities throughout the United States which provide program, hospitality, sightseeing, and information services to short-term international visitors as they travel around the United States.

United States Center for International Women's Year 1975 (USC/IWY 1975) coordinates efforts across the country for observance of this United Nations' proclaimed Year. It focuses attention on the status of women throughout the world and on recognition of women's responsibilities and achievements.

MS. ANDERSON. Thank you.

You noticed that the chairman mentioned specifically in his opening statement that he wanted you to feel that this was your meeting today. So now we will go to questions and answers.

Anything that you want to ask, or any comments that you want to make on any issue that you feel anyone here will be able to help you with, I want you to feel free to do so. If you notice, we kept the remarks very short just for that reason so that we would have plenty of time to hear from you.

You may address your questions to any member of the panel seated in front of you.

Who would like to be first?

Yes?

TRAVELERS AID

QUESTION (from the audience). May I ask whether Travelers Aid comes under Meridan House?

Mr. CLEVELAND. I am trying to get the microphone here. I will try and use my voice.

The Travelers Aid is a separate national institution which has a branch organization in Washington. Now, I might say this, that IVIS, the International Visitors Service Council is a council of which Travelers Aid, I am pretty sure, is a member. We work very closely with Travelers Aid. Whenever they have a problem, a welfare type of problem relating to a visitor from overseas, there is, of course, consultation, particularly if there is a problem of somebody that needs language assistance, and so forth. We work very closely together, but they are not part of our organization.

MS. ANDERSON. Next?

Ambassador KROYER. Mr. Chairman, my name is Haraldur Kroyer, I am the Ambassador from Iceland.

I should like to first express my own appreciation and that of my Embassy. I am speaking on behalf of the others who have shown up for this meeting, our appreciation for your convening this meeting which we feel is very useful, and we have shown by showing up in good number that we intend to profit from it.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SCHOOLS

I understand that we may freely ask questions on any of the subjects that were mentioned regarding the proposed agenda. My problem is one of education, schooling for children in the Embassy, particularly my own. I come from a country where public schools like here are free, from grammar school through the university. My Government finds it difficult to understand that I am in the predicament here in Washington, D.C., that I find it difficult to send my children to a public school in precisely the district where our Embassy is located. We have therefore found it necessary to send our children to a private school which costs a good deal of money, more than my Government is willing to compensate for. A couple of predecessors of mine had made

representations to the local school authorities as to whether it would be possible to send their children to a public school elsewhere within the city limits, within the District, and exactly in the part of the city where the Embassy was located. They met with an absolute no.

I have been given to understand that the difficulty as far as the School Board or the local authorities were concerned lay in the system of school integration that has to be applied in this country and that there was no possibility of making an exception for children of foreign diplomats or Embassy personnel.

I wanted to bring up this question and ask you, Mr. Chairman, whether it would be possible to look into that again. I find it difficult to understand that if the local school authorities try to accommodate foreign diplomatic families and allow them to send their children to schools within the District that may not be exactly in the area where the Embassy is located, I find it rather difficult to understand how that would in any way contravene the application or the implementation of the school integration for children of the United States.

The CHAIRMAN. I think His Excellency raises a very good question, and we will certainly review this matter with the local authorities. This subject was brought up when we had our discussions a couple of years ago, not quite in that context, and there was some discussion then about the possibility of establishing an international school for the international community. I do not know whether the Department of State may want to make any comments on that at this point.

Mr. DAVIS. No, sir. I do not think we are in a position to make a comment on that. We have considered this essentially a local matter within the District of Columbia, since it operates the public school system, and the other matter is simply one that the Department of State has not officially endorsed, as a matter that it would care to sponsor, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there anyone else on the panel that has any comment to make, any specialized knowledge about that subject? Other than that, I will assure you, Mr. Ambassador, that I will review this matter with the local authorities and get back to you personally on it.

The next question, please?

FOREIGN STUDENTS

Mr. MAHMOOD. Mr. Chairman, my name is Rafig Mahmood. I represent Pakistan. Maybe the thrust of the question I am trying to raise is not very relevant, maybe it is. Maybe I am trying to seek the supposed position of the subcommittee to an amendment to the bill which has already been passed by the House, and the amendment which has been moved by Congressman Brown and later probably by Congressman Railsback in the House. Maybe this question relates to the Immigration people and I raise this question because I have been getting a lot even the other day there was a meeting like this in the Department of State. The Acting Secretary of Education, Mr. Hitchcock, was there, and the representatives of all educational organizations of this country. They all spoke in terms of international, intercultural education. But, I find that the number of foreign students, at least from my country, is on the decline. Fewer and fewer students are coming to this country for higher education because of the immi