Normal Americans are interested in that work, but the immigration visa programs have made it far more difficult for them to obtain it, or make a living doing it.
Well, I can tell you from a ringside seat that it is not happening in the nursing care area. It is hard work for modest wages. But none of them are illegal (at least at the start of their employment; sometimes they overstay their visa, but others are green-card holders), so there is no under-the-table wage schedule. The care rental agencies are all competitive. But rental care involves a rather wide geographic footprint, first at this address than at another. The care worker has to provide or arrange their own transportation to the client.
But, in the past few generations, what young people in school were ever counseled about health care or nursing as a job opportunity? Or, for that matter, being a plumber, electrician, cook, or mechanic? I have heard stories that school districts have shut down their trade schools, which I think is deplorable. My own high school has basically eliminated its music department. Also, in the foreign countries, it is the determined and dedicated person that will take up the training, and travel to a foreign land to have a living. So, I think it is domestic indifference and laziness pitted against foreigner drive and determination. That will take a while to overcome, and it has to start with US, not with them. Americans CAN compete...but not unless they run like hell and stop thinking they are entitled to luxury.
Your first reference was to health care services. Getting into nursing school is not a given, and is skewed in favor of foreigners to begin with. To avoid being waitlisted into a public subsidized (i.e., a state school) nursing school, a young woman I knew signed up for a private school. She was perfectly fine with the expected wages, and in fact had older relatives who had done well in nursing. But she had constant fights with the administration so that her classes would be taught in English rather than Tagalog ... turns out that 90% of the students were Filipino and the whole school was designed to successfully churn out nurses faster than the public schools. Most came with HB-1 visas attached to Kaiser or another large institution, with employment guaranteed upon graduation. And of course that feeds into DEI hiring, making further difficulties for locals to work in the field and needlessly depressing wages overall. Anyway, that's my anecdotal experience here in Cali. I've heard it's similar for Jamaicans on the East Coast.
Totally agree about schools de-emphasizing trade of all types. Industrial arts classes are disappearing left and right, and retiring teachers not being replaced. It'll be a lot of work before the education system mindset can be overhauled to fit reality instead of shoveling grads into college debt traps.
The people I'm talking about get their certification in their home country, so I don't see how the situation here bears on that. But it is strange that they would be taught in Tagalog when the clientele here mainly speaks English. In my wife's experience, if you can't speak English, you are unemployable. It could be a regional difference. The foreign community in the Seattle area commonly speak English and understand it is the language of business.
Yeah, this was L.A. The situation I described really only speaks to the fact that the importation of foreign workers has become institutionalized. Quotas on the overall number of nursing licenses combined with preferential treatment for immigrants have a real effect and prevent locals from working these careers, but I'm sure the ways these obstacles manifest varies by state.
The workplace language is still English, but just like you commonly hear Spanish in the kitchens of many (most?) restaurants, it's pretty common here to hear Tagalog in hospital hallways and it's become more pervasive over the years.
Normal Americans are interested in that work, but the immigration visa programs have made it far more difficult for them to obtain it, or make a living doing it.
Well, I can tell you from a ringside seat that it is not happening in the nursing care area. It is hard work for modest wages. But none of them are illegal (at least at the start of their employment; sometimes they overstay their visa, but others are green-card holders), so there is no under-the-table wage schedule. The care rental agencies are all competitive. But rental care involves a rather wide geographic footprint, first at this address than at another. The care worker has to provide or arrange their own transportation to the client.
But, in the past few generations, what young people in school were ever counseled about health care or nursing as a job opportunity? Or, for that matter, being a plumber, electrician, cook, or mechanic? I have heard stories that school districts have shut down their trade schools, which I think is deplorable. My own high school has basically eliminated its music department. Also, in the foreign countries, it is the determined and dedicated person that will take up the training, and travel to a foreign land to have a living. So, I think it is domestic indifference and laziness pitted against foreigner drive and determination. That will take a while to overcome, and it has to start with US, not with them. Americans CAN compete...but not unless they run like hell and stop thinking they are entitled to luxury.
Your first reference was to health care services. Getting into nursing school is not a given, and is skewed in favor of foreigners to begin with. To avoid being waitlisted into a public subsidized (i.e., a state school) nursing school, a young woman I knew signed up for a private school. She was perfectly fine with the expected wages, and in fact had older relatives who had done well in nursing. But she had constant fights with the administration so that her classes would be taught in English rather than Tagalog ... turns out that 90% of the students were Filipino and the whole school was designed to successfully churn out nurses faster than the public schools. Most came with HB-1 visas attached to Kaiser or another large institution, with employment guaranteed upon graduation. And of course that feeds into DEI hiring, making further difficulties for locals to work in the field and needlessly depressing wages overall. Anyway, that's my anecdotal experience here in Cali. I've heard it's similar for Jamaicans on the East Coast.
Totally agree about schools de-emphasizing trade of all types. Industrial arts classes are disappearing left and right, and retiring teachers not being replaced. It'll be a lot of work before the education system mindset can be overhauled to fit reality instead of shoveling grads into college debt traps.
The people I'm talking about get their certification in their home country, so I don't see how the situation here bears on that. But it is strange that they would be taught in Tagalog when the clientele here mainly speaks English. In my wife's experience, if you can't speak English, you are unemployable. It could be a regional difference. The foreign community in the Seattle area commonly speak English and understand it is the language of business.
Yeah, this was L.A. The situation I described really only speaks to the fact that the importation of foreign workers has become institutionalized. Quotas on the overall number of nursing licenses combined with preferential treatment for immigrants have a real effect and prevent locals from working these careers, but I'm sure the ways these obstacles manifest varies by state.
The workplace language is still English, but just like you commonly hear Spanish in the kitchens of many (most?) restaurants, it's pretty common here to hear Tagalog in hospital hallways and it's become more pervasive over the years.