India ranks second in terms of the number of source countries for registered nurses and is the leading nation of origin for immigrant physicians and surgeons (doctors) employed in the US. India dropped to third place, behind the Philippines and Mexico, in terms of the total number of immigrant healthcare professionals working in the US, including home health aides and nursing assistants.
Approximately 26.5%, or 2.6 lakh, of the 9.9 lakh doctors in the US are immigrants. More Indians than any other nationality have emigrated to the US to pursue careers as doctors. There are 59,000 Indian physicians in the US, making up 22% of all immigrant physicians, or one in five.
Comparatively, only 16,000 physicians, or 6% of all physicians who are immigrants, are currently licensed to practice medicine in the United States. They were born in China and Hong Kong. With 13,000 immigrant doctors, or 5% of the total immigrant doctor population, Pakistan completes the top three. The top three American states of destination for medical immigrants were New Jersey, Florida, and New York.
The US-based company Remitly, which offers digital finance and remittance services, just published its "Immigrant Healthcare Index" after analyzing data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Migration Policy Institute (MPI).
According to the data, 5.4 lakh registered nurses, or about 16% of the 34.1 lakh nurses who are now employed, are immigrants. With 1.4 lakh Filipino registered nurses currently employed in the US, the country accounts for 26% of the immigrant registered nurse population. The second and third most common immigrant nationalities in this sector were Indians (32,000, or 6% of the immigrant registered nursing workforce) and Nigerians (24,000, or 5%). The top American states of destination for immigrant registered nurses were California, Nevada, and New Jersey.
Approximately 2.7 crore immigrants made up 18% of all healthcare workers in the United States. Of all the immigrant healthcare professionals, 1.8 lakh were Indian, making about 7% of the workforce. Despite being a major provider of physicians and registered nurses, India only ranked third overall since it did not place in the top five for other occupations such as nursing assistants and health aides. The largest group of immigrants working in healthcare was made up of 3.5 lakh Filipinos, or 13% of all immigrants working in the field. Next in line was Mexico, with 2.7 lakh workers, or 10% of all immigrants working in healthcare.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Priyanka Pandey/MSM)
