Thread: Foreign-born physicians fear immigration backlash

The article states that about 25 percent of U.S, not counting those trained in Canada, are trained abroad.

Our system sets high standards for Americans to get into medical school, and competition to get in is fierce. As a result, many qualified American students cannot get it in to study medicine.

25 percent is huge! It's outrageous that so many doctors are imported. Why not open more US medical schools?

I guess that so many doctors are imported to keep wages in HMO facilities low.

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http://www.star-telegram.com/national_n ... 61717.html

Foreign-born physicians fear immigration backlash
By MATT APUZZO
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Evidence that foreign-born doctors are at the heart of a British terrorist plot has foreign-born physicians in the U.S. on edge and wondering whether already stringent immigration security will get tougher.

Six physicians are among eight suspects in the failed terror attacks, including one from Iraq, one from Jordan, two from India and a man identified by hospital staff members as being from Lebanon.

"We're hoping and praying these physicians are cleared and that they've done no harm," said Dr. Subramaniam Balasubramaniam, past president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. The attacks led Prime Minister Gordon Brown to order a review of Britain's medical recruiting policies, which for years had been crafted to help fill a doctor shortage.

Officials have not called for such a review in the U.S., where foreign doctors face not only difficult licensing requirements but long background and security checks.

Still, doctors and immigration lawyers are bracing for fallout.

"This is going to complicate matters," Balasubramaniam said. "I'm sure Homeland Security will have a microscopic examination of physicians coming from abroad. I expect them to do that."

Medical practitioners are normally licensed at the state level. Foreign doctors usually come to the U.S. on temporary visas enabling them to complete their residency and take U.S. medical tests.

Under federal law, after doctors complete residence work, they must return to their home countries for two years before they can apply for a work visa or green card to return to the U.S. Then they must pass through the security process again.

Doctors who don't want to leave can apply for a waiver if they agree to practice in an underserved community for three years. Thousands of doctors sign up each year, and the programs have become a major source of medical service for rural and poor areas.

The FBI said two of the doctors under scrutiny inquired about working in the U.S. within the last year. That news, like word of the original plot, moved quickly within the community of foreign doctors.

"Everyone was outraged by it," said Dr. Issam Daya, a Syrian-born obstetrician practicing in Maryland and a member of the National Arab American Medical Association.

Worries also spread in India, whose highly skilled medical professionals have always found it easy to work and study abroad. Three of the suspects are from a single family in Bangalore. It was the first time that Indian Muslims have been accused of being linked to a possible al Qaeda plot.

In emotional television broadcasts, Indian political and medical leaders said they worried that it would be harder to get visas to Britain and that Indian professionals living abroad would face racial profiling.

Ajay Kumar, president of the Indian Medical Association, reacted to Brown's orders, saying: "I'm really peeved, because every place in the world has Indian doctors. ... One should not malign the entire population of Indian doctors working very long hours and practicing medicine for generations because two people out of 1.1 billion might have done a horrible crime."

This report includes material from The Washington Post.

Foreign-trained doctors

About 25 percent of U.S. physicians -- or 228,655 -- are trained abroad, not counting those trained in Canada, according to the American Medical Association.

Of the 11,000 applicants certified to apply for residency and fellowship programs in 2006, 83 percent were non-U.S. citizens; 25 percent came from India; 6 percent from Pakistan; and 4 percent from China, according to the medical education commission.

This subject brings us right back to the illegal alien problem again. More doctors are needed in this country because we have 12-20 million people who just shouldn't be here, taking American citizens time away from their doctors and in emergency rooms.

Most of the problems in this country, leads right back to illegal alien population.

Medical practitioners are normally licensed at the state level. Foreign doctors usually come to the U.S. on temporary visas enabling them to complete their residency and take U.S. medical tests.

Under federal law, after doctors complete residence work, they must return to their home countries for two years before they can apply for a work visa or green card to return to the U.S. Then they must pass through the security process again.

Doctors who don't want to leave can apply for a waiver if they agree to practice in an underserved community for three years. Thousands of doctors sign up each year, and the programs have become a major source of medical service for rural and poor areas.

Here is your answer as to why the US admits so many FMGs (foreign
medical graduates). In addition to providing cheap labor for HMO's, it is easier to send FMGs to poor areas rather than attempt to make the situation attractive for a US grad.

Every country that has National Healthcare Service has to import physicians because of the overload. England imports over 50% of their physicians..mainly from Arab and Muslim countries! These physicians are reduced to becoming low paid civil servants and they do NOT have the prestige afforded to American doctors.

If the US makes the fatal mistake of instituting National Healthcare, we will be importing at least 50% of our physicians and they will be working for the same bureauacracy that runs the DMV and Post Office! They too will be civil servants. making the same pay scale.

We already have many doctors from England and Canada who have emigrated because of the disastrous effects of NHC.

Every politician is campaigning for NHC instead of solving the problem...deny services to illegals and reform the Insurance and Pharmaceutical companies. It's a no brainer.

tinybobidaho wrote:

This subject brings us right back to the illegal alien problem again. More doctors are needed in this country because we have 12-20 million people who just shouldn't be here, taking American citizens time away from their doctors and in emergency rooms.

Most of the problems in this country, leads right back to illegal alien population.

I agree, illegal immigration is a contributor to many negative issues facing our country. Furthermore, it's disgusting that our MSM continously attempts to keep us in the dark on these issues. Of course this isn't very surprising, considering the fact that the majority of the MSM leans to the extreme left.

I am kinda lost here.

Wasn't it just in the Clinton administration that they said we had too many doctors and they were going to pay medical schools the equivalent of tuition to NOT teach and graduate doctors!!

Originally Posted by nntrixie

I am kinda lost here.

Wasn't it just in the Clinton administration that they said we had too many doctors and they were going to pay medical schools the equivalent of tuition to NOT teach and graduate doctors!!

Yes, that was a part of HillaryCare, if I remember correctly.

Well.............that's the Clinton administration for you. Insuring a constant flow of immigrant doctors in order to help keep the American population stupid and under their misguided control.

I might be showing my age in this next question but, "Does anyone here remember when American corporations used to offer training to those non-management employees who wanted to further their education and possibly move up the food chain"?

Seriously. It used to happen. I know it's a shock for anyone reading this post that is currently under thirty years of age but, it's true! American corporations used to do this in order to get employee loyalty in return. I don't think it's just a coincidence that employee loyalty went down the drain about the same time the educational benefits all ended for the non-management employees.

It was the unions that helped get those kind of benefits in place for the common worker, folks. Not the company management snobs who look down their noses at their employees. When the companies that "allow" unions started to offer this benefit to their employees the non-union companies were forced by "default" to follow along and begin offering the same benefits to their employees for fear of losing them all to the union companies.

Say what you want against the unions folks but the facts are, just like Microsoft, your employer will not do anything for you in the way furthering your education unless they feel it could hurt themselves if they don't.

It's your government and the upper management of the company where you work that wants you to believe that unions are evil.

Why?

Because labor unions, most of the time at least, screen out illegal aliens and fight for workers rights. That's why.



Rice

Well, it was the Clinton administration - but is this one doing anything better? I mean has it helped get more Americans into medical school - or is it working really hard to get as many forieigners into every facet of America?

We are importing thousands of RN's. Why, if we need RN's, haven't we helped Americans get the education needed for that field?

I do remember when a person could work his/her way up the ladder and people did have loyalty to their employer.

It was such a shock to me to find out that young people today think nothing of 'job hopping'. That was considered a bad thing in my day, but now it is if not a good thing, at least an accepted thing.

might be showing my age in this next question but, "Does anyone here remember when American corporations used to offer training to those non-management employees who wanted to further their education and possibly move up the food chain"?

ALMOST ALL COMPANIES USE TO DO THIS. YOU WOULD JUST START OUT IN AN "ENTRY LEVEL" POSITION AND WORK YOUR WAY UP. YOU GOT HEALTH INSURANCE AND DENTAL INSURANCE AND A PENSION.

IF YOU TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR JOB AND SHOWED UP EVERYDAY AND TOOK YOUR JOB SERIOUSLY.....YOU COULD COUNT ON KEEPING THAT JOB FOR LIFE. AND YOU COULD COUNT ON RETIREMENT. UNTIL THEY STARTED TO BREAK THE UNIONS BACK IN THE 80'S. THINK IT STARTED WITH THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS. THEN IT WAS AUTO MANUFACTURING.

SOME OF THOSE PEOPLE HAD BEEN FAITHFULLY ON THE JOB FOR LIKE 20 OR 25 YEARS....AND THEY DUMPED THEM LIKE GARBAGE. AND WHAT REALLY MAKES ME MAD IS NO ONE TOOK ACCOUNT OF THEIR PERSONAL SUFFERING DUE TO THEIR JOB LOSS. NOT ON ANY LARGE SCALE.

BUT SOMETIMES YOU WOULD HEAR A STORY.

ONE STORY I WILL NEVER FORGET: A MARRIED COUPLE WHO WORKED IN AUTO MANUFACTURING. THEY BOTH LOST THEIR JOBS. THEIR KIDS WERE GROWN, SO AT LEAST THEY HAD NO ONE TO SUPPORT (OTHERS WERENT SO LUCKY). THEY ENDED UP LOSING THEIR HOME. THEY COMMITTED SUICIDE TOGETHER. THEY WERE FOUND IN THEIR CAR.

WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THESE CORPS WHO WANT TO USE PEOPLE AND THROW THEM OUT LIKE THEY ARENT EVEN HUMAN.