Many Filipino healthcare workers in the US live in fear of ICE: 'This is my place of work. I should feel safe'

[markodochartaigh]

6. Those other countries don't have surplus healthcare workers,

and that is part of the problem. Healthcare workers coming from those countries often leave their home countries without enough workers, basically a brain, or skills, drain. It ends up that whole schools in those countries produce workers for export to the US. People who would have been doctors or engineers, etc. in those countries end up going to nursing school so that they can emigrate to the US and make more as nurses than they could have made as doctors or engineers at home. And of course the health care worker population is exported as well.

As for why there aren't enough health care workers here, it used to be considered a woman's job, the jobs used to not be well paid, and many of the jobs are unpleasant. Health care is less often considered a woman's job now and pay has increased as much as ten times since the 80's. When I graduated and passed boards in 1983 I made about $5/hr as a registered nurse in Texas, and some of my classmates made $3.50-4.00 an hour in tiny hospitals which have long since closed and were virtually the only jobs in those towns. The work is still often unpleasant though. Many people find blood, secretions, and guts difficult to handle. And treatment by administration and patients' families can be very demeaning and demanding. There is also a saying in nursing that "nurses eat their own".