How do people trained, licensed, and with work experience in another country re-enter their professions in America? Unfortunately, many encounter a number of obstacles that block them from doing so – resulting in what is often called “brain waste.”
In the United States, key regulated industries like education, engineering, and healthcare face significant labor shortages that are predicted to deepen in the coming years. Experts in the healthcare area alone project a shortfall of over 900,000 nurses by 2030 and up to 86,000 physicians by 2036 as the country’s population ages and current practitioners retire. Despite the urgent need to address labor shortages, an estimated two million college-educated immigrants are currently underemployed and underutilized. Fortunately, many states are taking steps to correct this problem.
The Garden State Immigration Policy Institute convened a program with a panel of representatives from three states that have done pioneering work in this area. The three states were California, Colorado, and Michigan.
Our first speaker was Asma Easa, Senior Manager for State and Local Initiatives of the American Immigration Council, who shared available data on workforce shortages in New Jerey and the nation as a whole. She was followed by Katherine Gebremehin, the Director of State and Local Initiatives at World Education Services (WES), a non-profit organization that provides credential evaluations for individuals with education obtained outside the U.S.
Katherine moderated the panel of state representatives, which included Anthony Cherwinski, Global Talent Administrator, at the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment; Sebastian Sanchez, Deputy Secretary, at the California Department of Labor & Workforce Development; and Steve Tobocman, Executive Director of Global Detroit.
This webinar was sponsored by the Genova Burns law firm.
To learn more about state reforms to address this problem and to watch a video of this webinar, click on the link below.