Nursing and Teaching are Jobs Americans Won't Do?

By Amanda Downs, February 26, 2009
Edited by Jessica Vaughan.

Lost in the debate over H-1B visas - which are typically portrayed as going mainly to high-tech or computer programming workers - is the fact that certain American colleges, universities, and medical facilities are also heavy users of this program. According to a searchable list of H-1B employers recently posted on Computer World magazine’s web site, a number of U.S. educational and health care institutions each sponsored hundreds of guest workers in 2008. Using this database, we identified 300 universities and 318 colleges that were approved for a total of 5,755 foreign workers. In addition we identified 465 public school systems, approved for 1,522 workers. Finally, we found 379 hospitals, and 948 health or medical employers who hired a combined 4,787 workers.

The H-1B program allows an employer to hire a foreign worker on a "temporaryâ€