Light at the end of the tunnel for Foreign Nurses

[Rep]

There is light at the end of the tunnel with the Democrats in control of the House of Representatives and with two shy seats in the US Senate.

Remember the dynamics of US politics where Democrats are known for friendly legislations when it comes to immigration.

Way back in 2004 when retrogression settled in, a Democrat , Tom Lantos, Ca, filed a bill for the recapture of EB3 visas. And thats where we got the 50,000visas for Schedule A.

Let us keep our fingers cross. Anyway, anything that will be done would be in the early 2nd quarter next year.

But the good thing is, the new Congress will be friendly to immigration.

[cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN]

That old slogan so popular during the immigrant marches, "Today We March, Tomorrow We Vote," has come really alive after Tuesday's election..

Did you even read the link I sent? I guess not..... If they voted, then they sure missed out on some key propositions. I suggest that you re-read the link and enlighten yourself. They marched alright. And the only ones adversely affected was them. Since you are not living anynear our southern border I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

The lesson is clear: Americans want fair immigration reform. And politicians will forget it at their own risk.

No, actually. If anything, Americans want to decrease immigration. We're quite frankly tired of the argument. Lizz is right, and I am right, it's not a good idea to link your title of 'legal immigrant' with illegal alien.

Look, It's obvious that you can only see this issue through rose colored glasses. You only want to see what you want to see. If you think that Americans want more immigration, or that the Democrats shifting power is somehow going to affect immigration any time soon, then go ahead and think it. Sheesh! Good luck...

[Sheri257]

Wages can vary quite a bit from a hospital to another (public v.s. private). In NYC, some private hospitals pay almost $20000 more to newly graduate nurses than public hospitals do.

Foreign nurses are not necessarily cheap. Under the immigration law, hospitals have to pay them equal amt of money to hire them.

They may have to pay the same wages they pay RN's in that particular facility. But that doesn't mean they have to pay market wages for that area. Far from it. If they don't want to give staff RN's a pay increase to compete with other hospitals, they can avoid it by hiring foreign nurses at the low prevailing wages set by the labor department.

Sure, wages can vary widely in an area. But where I live, the "prevailing wage" is still pathetically low even when you take into account wage variations. The state, for example, pays RN's $20K more a year than most hospitals do. But I wasn't even counting that because it's not the norm of what the average hospital pays.

Of 15 hospitals in the area you could take the lowest pay available, and the prevailing wage set by the labor department would still be $3-$5 an hour lower, on average, than what you could get in the vast majority of cases.

So who is paying those pathetically low prevailing wages as set by the labor department? The hospital that's hiring over 80 foreign nurses because nobody here will work for them at those low wages.

I'm not saying that all hospitals use foreign nurses to keep wages low but, the fact is, some do.

:typing

[jonRNMD]

WOW!!!

for a while i thought i logged on an Immigration Forum