Not to pick on Cleveland, but 15,300 people leave every year. The population has slid from almost one million to 325,000. A recent risk assessment concludes that it might even lose half the current population. Richard Herman writes in the Plain Dealer: "The city needs the fresh optimism and pluck of new immigrants." 

Urban planning needs an immigrant attraction plan. Herman speaks for all business centers. The Boston Redevelopment Authority recently presented a paper that suggests that for every new visa holder who comes to work in Boston, 3 or more jobs are created!  In the face of a scarcity mentality ("they will take our jobs") there comes a new voice that suggests every immigrant builds community, increases consumer spending and is often responsible for generating new jobs. Boston welcomes foreign born leadership and they are visible at the head of the city's institutions of higher education, culture and business.

But a major additional concern has been a focus of British and American researchers who have documented the underemployment of immigrants. When I'm in a taxi I take it as a research opportunity to ask drivers what they did before migrating to the US. "I was an engineer." "I taught biology." One refugee acquaintance had 20 years as an orthopedic surgeon and another as a Sarajevo psychiatrist. Both are working in vastly different jobs at a fraction of the pay and potential contribution they were making before being forced away by war.

MPI reports that "1.6 million, or 23 percent, of the nearly 7.2 million college-educated immigrants ages 25 and older in the U.S. civilian labor force are affected by brain waste. Brain waste particularly affects the foreign born who earned their bachelor's degrees abroad, with 26 percent in low-skilled jobs or unemployed."

Recognizing the economic benefits to the receiving community and the lost human capital of underemployment, what should be done?

1. States need to become proactive in opening up licenses to the foreign trained. Yes, testing and recertification are understandable but exclusion and unreasonable barriers must be identified.

2. Mapping the experience of professional immigrants is a vital way of documenting where barriers exist and what addresses those hindrances to full employment by the capable.

3. Political leadership needs to be cultivated and offered to champion the inclusion of professionals and the correction of requirements.

4. Educators and workforce development institutions need to explore new programs that speed up the reentry to the professions by those needing to meet reasonable US standards as they relocate. (And funders need to invest in facilitating these recertification endeavors).

5. Advocates for the immigrant community need to think about leadership as well as labor. The voice of professional immigrants is increased and can have quick returns as ethnic groups benefit from the doctor, dentist, and nurse who bridges health care and community needs with language skills, as well as the professionals who can support and sustain community group leadership.

To the last point, the IIL recently supported MIRA's leadership in a symposium to gather state, private sector, academic and nonprofit sector representatives in developing a Massachusetts plan. Economic measures were coupled with academic and political leadership to assess the current state of affairs and initiate a state task force to facilitate professional certification and relocation to Massachusetts. With nearly one in six state residents being foreign born, the initiative is about systemic change, fostering the leading state industries of life sciences, health care and academic research. MIRA is endeavoring to make Massachusetts the first in the nation with policy recommendations acted upon by the governor, legislature and licensing bodies.  Human need may drive the initiative with a deep compassion for the frustrations that professionals experience, but societal benefit, state competitiveness and industry needs were given primacy.

In the middle of the last century, baseball great Jackie Robinson declared that the right of every American to first-class citizenship was the most important issue of his time. His words still ring true today. As we experience the interplay of developed economies and the benefits to our nation of migration, the question of endorsing and facilitating global labor mobility to the end that no contributor to the nation is wasted or denied opportunity needs to be a shared goal. Thirty-three of the 98 U.S.-based scientists awarded Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine were foreign-born[1]. While these notables create national pride, we continue policies that disregard long and successful careers with demands for years of uncompensated reeducation for today's highly skilled foreign born professionals before they can take their place in our society.

We all benefit when we are all given equal opportunity to contribute to our shared life.

Westy Egmont, Director