Reply #40: Yes, the NYT had an article about Philipino women moving

[ikojo]

to the US to fill vacant nursing positions. With overtime pay they can make $80K per year as opposed to what they made in the Phillipines. As an ethnic group Philipinos are well represented in nursing.

While there is a nursing shortage, I think hospitals import Philipino nurses for the same reason Silicon Valley employers imported Indian computer programmers, as visiting workers they don't have the same rights as American workers. They can be more easily exploited and tend not to say anything because the money is so much better than what they can get in their home countries.

What many Americans do not realize is that many countries provide free government subsidized education through the university level. American students who are not from rich families are increasingly coming out of school with huge debt burdens and this could be leading to the nursing shortage as well. Nursing school is not cheap. It is not the two or three year program it was 20 years ago. Increasingly it demands a bachelors degree in nursing.