Foreign-Born Health Care Workers in the United States

Migration Policy Institute has this fact sheet about Foreign-Born Health Care Workers in the United States.  In 2010, women accounted for three of every four foreign-born health care workers. Employment in health care occupations increased despite the recession and is projected to outpace almost every major occupational group in terms of job growth between 2010 and 2020, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Amid this growth, the number of foreign-born health care workers has also been on the rise, increasing from 1.5 million to 1.8 million between 2006 and 2010. Today, immigrants make up a sizeable proportion of the US health care workforce.

In 2010, the foreign born accounted for 16 percent of all civilians employed in health care occupations in the United States. In some health care professions, this share was larger. More than one-quarter of physicians and surgeons (27 percent) were foreign born, as were more than one out of every five (22 percent) persons working in health care support jobs as nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides.

KJ