Forbes: Immigrant Health Care Workers Vital Despite U.S. Immigration Policies
By Stuart Anderson
As America’s population ages, immigrants will play a significant role in providing health care to Americans, according to new research. Nearly 20% of health care workers in the United States are foreign born. That includes physicians, nurses, pharmacists, home health aides and others. Limitations in the U.S. immigration system prevent many aides, health care professionals and biomedical researchers from coming to America to work. Research indicates increasing the immigration of foreign-born health care workers could allow Americans to live longer, healthier lives.
Immigrant Health Care Workers
“Foreign-born workers make a vital contribution to health care in the United States,” according to University of North Florida economist Madeline Zavodny in a new National Foundation for American Policy study. “The foreign born help meet U.S. health care needs not only by working as health care practitioners, technicians, and support workers, but also by conducting biomedical research, teaching students in health science-related fields and working in health care-related manufacturing.”
Analyzing the Current Population Survey, Zavodny found that almost 19% of workers in health care occupations in the United States are foreign born. However, the proportions in specific categories may give a better idea of the increasing importance of foreign-born health care workers:
– Among home health aides, 41% are foreign born.
– Personal care aides: 28% are foreign born.
– Physicians and surgeons: 26% are foreign born.
– Dentists: 22% are foreign born.
– Nursing assistants: 22% are foreign born.
– Pharmacists: 19% are foreign born.
– Registered nurses: 17% are foreign born.
– Licensed practical and vocational nurses: 17% are foreign born.
– And pharmacy technicians: 15% are foreign born.
Immigrant Nobel Prizes And Biomedical Research
Zavodny cites NFAP research that found approximately one-third of the Americans who have won a Nobel Prize in medicine since 2000 are foreign born, as are over two in five of the Americans who have won a Nobel Prize in chemistry since 2000.
According to Zavodny’s research, almost half of the people working in America as bioengineers, biomedical engineers or medical scientists are foreign born. She notes these jobs are critical to innovation, although not formally a health care occupation. “The share of biomedical researchers whose primary work activity is research and development is higher among those who are foreign born (72% vs. 60% among the U.S. born),” writes Zavodny. “The difference is likely due in part to the higher share of foreign-born biomedical researchers who have a Ph.D. (57%, versus 26% among the U.S. born). Almost half of foreign-born biomedical researchers who have a Ph.D. earned that degree in the United States.”
Ninety-two percent of foreign-born biomedical researchers had at least one patent and/or published article, compared with 83% of U.S.-born biomedical researchers, according to a 2003 National Survey of College Graduates survey. The study found more than one-sixth of people working as professors or postsecondary teachers in health and related sciences are foreign born, with the foreign born “much more likely” to have a Ph.D. (42% vs. 23% of the U.S. born). The study found, “One-quarter of people working in pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing or in medical equipment and supplies manufacturing are foreign born, totaling about 350,000 workers.”
Members of Congress recognize the need for reform. “Immigrants have always strengthened our nation—and nowhere is that clearer than in the health care field,” said U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) in a statement. “They drive innovation at the forefront of medical research, perform highly skilled procedures, and provide critical care for our elderly population. With rising costs and growing demand in health care, we need immigrant health care workers more than ever to help meet critical needs and deliver quality care.”
“We must expand America’s STEM workforce to compete in the global economy,” said Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL) in a statement. “Our country gives international STEM students a world-class education, only to turn them away when they want to stay in the United States after graduation and contribute their skills to our economy. Allowing these graduates to stay would help put our country on the cutting edge of scientific research and technological development and create good-paying American jobs along the way.”
Foster and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) have introduced the bipartisan Keep STEM Talent Act, which allows individuals who earned a master’s degree or higher in a STEM field from a U.S. university to not be subject to the numerical limits for employment-based immigration if they have a job offer and received labor certification.
Immigrants And Independent Living
Immigrants help American seniors avoid a nursing home. Economists Kristin F. Butcher (Wellesley College), Kelsey Moran (MIT) and Tara Watson (Williams College), in research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), found immigrants help older Americans live independently at home. The study found a 10 percentage point increase in the less-educated immigrant population in an area reduces by 29% the probability someone 65 years or older would live in a nursing home or other institutional setting. For an individual 80 years or older, a 10 percentage point increase in the less-educated immigrant population in an area reduces the probability of institutionalization by 26%.
“Graduates from U.S. institutions are able to fill critical roles in health care, through a variety of disciplines,” according to Tom Price, who served as secretary of health and human services in the Trump administration. “Nursing assistants, home health aides, and other frontline caregivers stand to benefit from a surge of U.S.-trained international workers, particularly as these professions face the demand for care as the population continues to decline.” Price believes immigrants can help fill gaps in elder care, rural health services and chronic disease management “by equipping and retaining these graduates.”
The U.S. Immigration System Restricts Foreign-Born Health Care Workers
The U.S. immigration system makes it challenging for foreign-born nurses, home health aides, physicians and biomedical researchers to come to America to work. There are no temporary visa categories dedicated to foreign-born nurses or home health aides. Many nurses do not qualify for H-1B visas. Employers have reached the annual limit on H-1B petitions for the past two decades, which can leave qualified pharmacists and biomedical researchers without a way to remain in the United States. The low yearly limit on employment-based green cards and the per-country limit mean that individuals from India who obtain H-1B status could wait decades for permanent residence (a green card).
The Trump administration’s immigration policies have affected the supply of health care workers. “I represent hospitals in New Jersey, and the termination of parole programs is visibly exacerbating the already serious labor shortage problem in health care,” said Rosanna M. Fox of Lepore Taylor Fox LLP in an interview. “With the termination of parole (for Haitians and others) and TPS for Venezuelans, and with the uncertainty facing other parole programs, health care organizations are scrambling for ways to replace workers who lost work authorization in an already tight market and on very short notice.”
“The many contributions of foreign-born workers to health care delivery and infrastructure in the United States are particularly remarkable given that the country does not have any visa categories reserved for health care workers,” writes Madeline Zavodny. “Creating additional ways for health care professionals trained abroad to use their skills in the United States and providing a pathway to permanent residence and eventual U.S. citizenship to other foreign-born workers who help fill essential health care jobs would help ensure the country is able to meet the need for health care workers.”
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