A new report by theInstitutefor Immigration Research declares that immigrant labor plays an “outsizedand imperative role in the US healthcare system.  The AdvanceHealthcare Network reports that the IIR reports these figures of the populationare immigrant labor:
  • 28% of physiciansand surgeons
  • 40% of medicalscientists in pharmaceutical research and development
  • 50% of medicalscientists in biotechnology in states with a strong biotechnology sector
  • 22% of nursing,psychiatric and home health aides
  • 15% of registerednurses 

This is in spite ofthe fact that only 13% of the US population is foreign-born.  The IIR is funded by George MasonUniversity. 
The AHN write-upquotes Monica GomezIsaac, executive director of George Mason’s IIR.  Ms. Isaac is very positive about thecontributions that immigrants make in these fields, but she is incorrect inthis quote:  
“In the instance of nurses, thelack of an international standard for qualifying registered nurses is absent.The varying degrees of training based on the standards of individual nationsmake it complex to recruit and fill nursing shortages.”
This is untrue fortwo reasons.  First, there is aninternational standard for qualifying nurses. All US nurses must pass the NCLEX-RN Exam, which is offeredall around the world.  Second, thetraining standards are not the reason for the lack of foreign-born nurses.  Between15-20,000 internationally-trained RNs are registering to take the NCLEX-RN examevery year.  In the mid-2000s, thatnumber was even higher. 
The problem is theimmigrant visa retrogression.  A fully-qualifiednurse from the Philippines takes 3-5 to get her immigrant visa.  A fully-qualified Indian nurse takes 10+years.  If the US Congress would updatethe immigration laws to allow in more nurses, the bottleneck would fade.