Give me your tired, your poor...but not your physicians

[Guest guest]

Brain waste' thwarts immigrants' career dreams

By DEEPTI HAJELA, – 43 mins ago

NEW YORK – After finishing medical school in Bogota, Colombia, Anjelica

Montenegro did it all — obstetrics, pediatrics, emergency medicine, even

surgery. By her estimate, she worked with thousands of patients.

None of that prepared her for the jobs she's had since she moved to the United

States: Sales clerk. Babysitter. Medical assistant.

That last one definitely rubbed raw at times.

" I know I was working in my field, " the 34-year-old New York resident said. " But

that is medical assistant. I'm a doctor. "

Montenegro is hardly unique, given the high U.S. unemployment rate these days.

Her situation reflects a trend that some researchers call " brain waste " — a term

applied to immigrants who were skilled professionals in their home countries,

yet are stymied in their efforts to find work in the U.S. that makes full use of

their education or training.

Most of these immigrants wind up underemployed because of barriers like

language, lack of access to job networks, or credentialing requirements that are

different from those in other countries. Some are held back even further because

they're also in the U.S. illegally.

An analysis by researchers at the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration

think tank, estimated that 1.2 million college-educated immigrants in the United

States were underemployed, out of a population of 6.7 million. About another

350,000 were unemployed. The analysis, based on data from the Census Bureau's

2009 American Community Survey, did not differentiate between legal and illegal

immigrants.

Brain waste has consequences for immigrants as well as American employers and

the larger economy, said Jeanne Batalova, policy analyst at the institute and

co-author of a study on the issue.

For immigrants, it means bringing home less money than they have the potential

to earn. For employers, it means fewer skilled applicants in their hiring pools.

For the country overall, it means a missed opportunity to leverage already

trained professionals in areas where there may be a desperate need for them.

There's a " loss when human talent and potential is not maximized in the

fullest, " Batalova said.

Mohan Singh, 55, thought moving to the United States would be a smooth

transition. Born and raised in India, he left his home country for Kuwait, where

he worked in air conditioning and elevator maintenance. He lived in Kuwait for

25 years, started his own company and was successful enough to send his daughter

and son to college in the United States.

At their urging, Singh came to the U.S. in 2000. He said he thought " that I'll

be getting the same job, I'll be getting into a good field, make a good life. "

It took seven years to complete the paperwork that allowed Singh to work here

legally. When he applied for jobs, would-be employers focused on the fact that

Singh had not worked in his field in the United States.

" They cancel all my experience, " he said.

He now spends 12 hours a day, seven days a week, behind the wheel of a taxicab.

It's a far cry from the work he's done for much of his life, Singh said, and the

wages are much lower than those he once brought home. The whole experience has

soured him on the idea of staying in America. He plans to move back to India in

a couple of years, when his son is done with his post-graduate work.

" I used to have money, I used to have good life, " Singh said. " Over here, I'm

hand to mouth. "

Nikki Cicerani, executive director of Upwardly Global, a nonprofit organization

that helps legal immigrants find work in their chosen professions, said

typically, immigrants come from environments where job-seeking is done

differently. They may not know how to navigate the system, whether it's building

a network to learn about job openings or having a resume formatted in a way that

is familiar to American employers.

Interviewing can be especially tricky. " In many other countries, the resume and

the educational experience is the clincher, " Cicerani said, " whereas in the

United States, the interview is make it or break it. "

American employers can also have difficulty figuring out if an immigrant would

be the kind of employee they are seeking, absent a ready way of understanding

how foreign educational or professional expertise translates in the U.S. job

market, Cicerani said.

" They're not really clear how to evaluate a foreign degree against a

U.S.-educated candidate, " she said.

Montenegro came to the United States in 2004 to care for her mother, who had

been diagnosed with breast cancer. She stayed after marrying a man she met here,

and became an American citizen. She now lives in the New York borough of Queens

with her husband and two children.

Language was the first barrier that Montenegro encountered. She needed to

improve her English, but she also needed to work. She took a job as a sales

clerk in a local mall, and even though it felt strange to be a medical

professional working in retail, she said, the position at least helped her

polish her language skills.

Then came larger hurdles that no amount of perfect English could surmount.

There's a series of exams, the first of which cost $1,000 alone, Montenegro

said. She also has to complete a residency, a requirement for all graduates of

American medical schools. There are a limited number of residency slots overall

which makes it a very competitive process for everyone, but even more so for

foreign medical school graduates.

Montenegro has one more exam to pass before she can apply for a residency, a

process that will take at least a year or two. There's no guarantee that she'll

be accepted for a residency; At times, she fears she may never work as a doctor

here.

" So many times I want to get my things and my passport and go back to my

country, " Montenegro said. Over the years, she heard stories about the

lifestyles her doctor friends in Colombia were able to afford as she worked at

various low-wage jobs.

While Montenegro agrees that her credentials and her ability to provide good

health care should be vetted before she's allowed to work in this country, she

thinks having to train as a general practitioner all over again when she already

has experience is a waste — especially for the U.S., she said, because she

speaks fluent Spanish and could be an asset in any Spanish-speaking community in

need of a doctor.

" I'm ready to do that and help people, " she said.

http://news./s/ap/20110327/ap_on_re_us/us_underemployed_immigrants

.... " Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door! " ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Colossus