Healthcare
In the coming years, as our country’s 76.4 million baby boomers enter their elderly years, our country’s healthcare system will face unprecedented demand, adding jobs faster than any other segment of our economy. Yet, employers are already finding that there are not enough unemployed healthcare workers to fill vacant positions, and in some rural areas, shortages are particularly acute.
For several reasons, immigrants have been a particularly important stopgap filling some of our most glaring healthcare needs. Immigrants are twice as likely as native-born to fill lesser skilled home health aide positions, but also twice as likely to fill high-skilled positions as physicians and surgeons. And because immigrants tend to be more willing to move for a job than the native-born, and there are visa provisions to encourage this, immigrants also fill doctor vacancies in some of our rural communities with the greatest need. A smarter immigration system, however, could help fill far more gaps in our healthcare system, benefiting patients.
Foreign-Born Residents Contributed $220 Million to Missoula Region GDP in 2016
MISSOULA, MT – Immigrants in the Missoula region contributed $219.9 million to the region’s GDP in 2016 and paid $19.3 million in federal taxes and $7 million in state and local taxes, according to a new report by New American Economy (NAE), in partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC)… Read More
Pakistani Engineer Manages 700-Employee Facility, Oversees Life-Saving Drug Production
Usman Chaudhri dreamed of becoming an engineer, and by 23, he had more than achieved his goal. He had received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Pakistan’s National University of Sciences and Technology and had his research on synthetic engine fuel published in journals around the world. Riding… Read More
Without DACA, South Dakotan Will Lose Chance to Fill Critical Healthcare Role
Mario Gonzalez is on the front line of emergency care at North Kansas City Hospital. A cardiac sonographer, Gonzales conducts ultrasounds of patients’ hearts. It is a critical diagnostic tool for cardiologists, and trained health technicians like Gonzales are in high demand as an aging population across the United States… Read More
We’re Really Hardworking, Says Colorado DACA Recipient
When Acacia Mendoza was a baby, her parents, who had been laid off from their finance industry jobs in Guadalajara, Mexico, brought her and her twin sister to the United States, where her uncle worked as a tax preparer in Dallas. Her mother went to work for her uncle’s firm,… Read More
Ohio Dreamer One of Many Healthcare Workers U.S. Could Lose Without DACA
After many years of struggle, Diana Marquez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, is living the American Dream. A licensed phlebotomist, she is a supervisor at a Columbus, Ohio, blood bank and owns a three-bedroom home, which she shares with her husband and her 4-year-old son, who was born in the… Read More
With Nurse Aides Needed, Trained Dreamer Fears She Will Be Deported
Leyla Sabag is a nurse assistant who is about to start working at a nonprofit clinic for low-income Kansans. “It’s not a job for the weak, definitely — you have to work 16-hour shifts, and you have patients who scream, hit, bite, spit,” she says. “It’s one of those things… Read More
If Allowed, Dreamer Could Help Ease South Carolina Nursing Shortage
Nineteen-year-old Lenda Vazquez works six to seven days a week at her father’s landscaping business in Gilbert, South Carolina. “I’m pretty much his right-hand man,” she says. Vazquez is an undocumented immigrant, but her protections under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) have allowed her to obtain a driver’s license… Read More
As Reservist Deploys, Fears His DACA Fiancé May Be Deported
Esmeralda Tovar-Contreras is an undocumented immigrant who was brought to the United States from Mexico City when she was 2 years old. Thanks to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which provides qualifying young people like her some protections, the 21-year-old has been able to get a job at a… Read More
Dreamer Could Help Ease South Carolina’s Shortage of Healthcare Providers
Jacqueline Mayorga was born in Hidalgo, Mexico, to poor but hardworking parents. Her mother was a maid in Mexico City, and her father was a migrant farmworker in the United States who sent money home to the family. When Mayorga was 3 years old, her parents decided to reunite the… Read More
Haitian-American Nurse Advocates for Protection of All Farmworkers
When Myrto Cesaire left the instability of her native Haiti in 1980, she took the first job she could find when she arrived in Florida. She became a cabbage picker. Although she only worked in the field for a few months, she found a lifelong calling… Read More
Help Wanted
In all 50 states, there are already far more healthcare jobs open than there are workers available to fill them. Many policymakers worry that extreme demands on the healthcare system are coming at a time when many parts of the country still lack enough physicians and healthcare providers to offer adequate—or even basic—levels of care.
Healthcare Jobs Advertised for Each Unemployed Health Worker, 2013
Rural Provider Shortages
Rural communities, in many ways, feel healthcare worker shortages most acutely. Rural counties, on average, have far fewer doctors or home health aides per capita than more urban ones. But their healthcare needs are often greater—particularly given their older populations and higher rates of disability. Foreign-born physicians, who are often more willing to relocate than native-born colleagues, are a valuable resource for these medically underserved areas.
Indicators of Health Demand, Metro vs. Nonmetro Areas, 2014
Ratio of Providers to Population in Different County Types, 2014
The Role of Immigrants
In many health occupations, from surgeons to home health aides, immigrants already make up a large share of active workers. As the U.S. population continues to age and as healthcare demands increase, immigrants are expected to play an increasingly important role in the health of the nation.
Top Healthcare Jobs by Share of Foreign-Born Workers, 2018
Aging Baby Boomers
The 76.4 million baby boomers living in America represent a major challenge to our broader healthcare system. Baby boomers are expected to live longer than past generations, while also battling chronic, longstanding conditions. If caregivers remain scarce in some parts of the country, adult children could drop out of the labor force in large numbers to care for aging parents—a potential setback for the economy overall.
Sources:
2 Wan He et al., “65+ in the United States: 2005,” Current Population Reports: Special Studies (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Aging and U.S. Census Bureau, December 2005). Available online.; Carrie A. Werner, “The Older Population: 2010,” 2010 Census Briefs, November 2011. Available online.
3 Keehan, Sean P, Helen C. Lazenby, Mark A. Zezza, and Aaron S. Catlin, “Age Estimates in the National Health Accounts,” Health Care Financing Review 2, no. 2 (2003). Web Exclusive.
4MetLife, “Caregiving Costs to Working Caregivers: Double Jeopardy for Baby Boomers Caring for Their Parents,” June 2011. Available online.
Size of U.S. Population, Age 65+
Home Health Aides
As the share of the U.S. population over 65 continues to increase, demand for home health aides is expected to soar. But the U.S.-born workers who typically fill such jobs—working age women with less than a bachelor’s degree—is shrinking. Immigrants are already playing an outsized role as home health aides, and can help address our country’s growing needs for such workers in the future.
Psychiatrists
An estimated one in five Americans experiences a mental health issue each year, yet more than 40 percent never receive care.5 One reason why so many individuals go untreated and undiagnosed: The country’s large and growing shortage of mental health professionals, an issue that is particularly acute in America’s rural communities. While immigrants already play a large role in our psychiatry workforce, more could be done to leverage their training and skills.
Sources:
5 Pamela S. Hyde and Paolo Del Vecchio, “Five Point Plan to Improve the Nation’s Mental Health,” Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, n.d. Available online.; Patrick W. Corrigan, Benjamin G. Druss, and Deborah A. Perlick, “The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma on Seeking and Participating in Mental Health Care,” Association for Psychological Science, August 1, 2014. Available online.
States with the Most Days of Decreased or Compromised Worker Productivity Due to Inadequate Mental Healthcare
Visa Obstacles
Despite the critical role immigrants play in the healthcare workforce, the U.S. immigration system makes it difficult for employers to recruit immigrants, even when no U.S.-born workers are available. Many foreign medical residents who study in the United States come on the J-1 visa, a visa that requires them to return home for at least two years after completing their training. One program, The Conrad 30 Waiver, allows states to waive this return requirement for foreign medical residents willing to take jobs in underserved areas. The program, however, is far too limited to meet current needs. Expanding the Conrad 30 program and exploring other fixes—like offering a dedicated temporary work visa to health workers—would go a long way towards addressing our healthcare labor force challenges. So would streamlining the relicensing process for some foreign-trained doctors already here.
Sources:
6 José Ramón Fernández-Peña, Founder and Director of Welcome Back Initiative, August 2015.
7 Ibid.
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