Immigrants play a vital role in the U.S. workforce. From agriculture to construction and especially in healthcare, these workers are the cornerstone of essential industries – filling critical labor shortages and keeping the nation’s economy and services running smoothly.
In light of recent crackdowns on immigration, the U.S. risks losing this foundational support. Nearly every sector in healthcare is experiencing a worker shortage.
A new issue brief released by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows just how heavily America relies on immigrants in the healthcare space:
- Roughly 1 in 6 hospital workers are immigrants: This includes clinical workers – professionals involved in diagnosing, treating, or otherwise caring for patients – such as physicians, pharmacists, technicians, and support occupations like nursing assistants. It also includes non-clinical roles such as cleaning and maintenance, food preparation and service, office and support roles, and more. About 74% of immigrants working in hospitals are citizens, while roughly a quarter (26%) are not.
- More than a quarter of all hospital physicians are immigrants: 27% of hospital physicians are immigrants. Many physician specialties are already expected to see greater shortages in the coming years, and reducing access to this population of workers could exacerbate this issue.
- 16% of registered nurses (RNs) are immigrants: More hospitals are relying on foreign-educated nurses to fill RN vacancies as they are the largest percentage of clinical hospital workers by occupation (43%).
- 3 in 10 hospital physicians are immigrants in the four largest states: At least 20% of hospital workers in nine states are immigrants. In the largest states – California, Florida, New York, and Texas – this percentage is even higher.
The long-term healthcare industry – servicing the country’s fast-growing elderly population – also relies heavily on foreign-born employees. In a collection of reports, Axios finds that more than 41% of home health aides in the U.S. last year were foreign-born. In addition, 22% of nursing assistants and 28% of personal care aides are foreign-born, while 30% of housekeeping and maintenance workers in nursing homes are also foreign-born.
The Healthcare Workforce Coalition supports reforms to enable more trained and qualified foreign-born clinicians to enter America’s healthcare workforce and fill positions left empty by our domestic workers.
Learn more about KFF’s findings HERE.