Posted on 03/26/2018 9:08:05 AM PDT by spintreebob
People living with disabilities, serious illness and the frailty of old age are bracing to lose caregivers due to changes in federal immigration policy.
About 59,000 Haitians live in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a humanitarian program that gave them permission to work and live here after the January 2010 earthquake devastated their country. Many work in health care, often in grueling, low-wage jobs as nursing assistants or home health aides.
Now these workers’ days are numbered: The Trump administration decided to end TPS for Haitians.
In Boston, the city with the third-highest Haitian population, the decision has prompted panic from TPS holders and pleas from health care agencies that rely on their labor. The fallout offers a glimpse into how changes in immigration policy are affecting older Americans in communities around the country, especially in large cities.
Ending TPS for Haitians “will have a devastating impact on the ability of skilled nursing facilities to provide quality care to frail and disabled residents,” warned Tara Gregorio, president of the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, which represents 400 elder care facilities, in a letter published in The Boston Globe. Nursing facilities employ about 4,300 Haitians across the state, she said.
“We are very concerned about losing dedicated, hardworking individuals, particularly at a time when we cannot afford to lose workers,” Gregorio said in a recent interview. In Massachusetts, 1 in 7 certified nursing assistant (CNA) positions are vacant, a shortage of 3,000 workers.
Nationwide, 1 million immigrants work in direct care — as CNAs, personal care attendants or home health aides — according to the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute. Immigrants make up 1 in 4 workers, said Robert Espinoza, PHI’s VP of policy. Turnover is high, he said, because the work is difficult and wages are low. The median wage for personal care attendants and home health aides is $10.66 per hour, and $12.78 per hour for CNAs. Workers often receive little training and leave when they find higher-paying jobs at retail counters or fast-food restaurants, he said.
The country faces a severe shortage in home health aides. With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 each day, an even more serious shortfall lies ahead, according to Paul Osterman, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management. He predicts a national shortfall of 151,000 direct care workers by 2030, a gap that will grow to 355,000 by 2040. That shortage will escalate if immigrant workers lose work permits, or if other industries raise wages and lure away direct care workers, he said.
Nursing homes in Massachusetts are already losing immigrant workers who have left the country in fear, in response to the White House’s public remarks and immigration proposals.
“What people don’t seem to understand is that people from other countries really are the backbone of long-term care,” said Sister Jacquelyn McCarthy, CEO of Bethany Health Care Center in Framingham, Mass, which runs a nursing home with 170 patients. She has 8 Haitian and Salvadoran workers with TPS, mostly CNAs. She already has 6 CNA vacancies and can’t afford to lose more.
“There aren’t people to replace them if they should all be deported,” McCarthy said.
In addition to seeing Dicenso, Nirva works 3 shifts a week at a chiropractor’s office. Five nights a week, she works the overnight shift at a rehab center in Boston run by Hebrew SeniorLife. CEO Louis Woolf said Hebrew SeniorLife has 40 workers with TPS, out of 2,600.
It’s not clear how many direct care workers rely on TPS. PHI calculates 34,600 are from Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. 11,000 from countries affected by Trump’s travel ban, primarily from Somalia and Iran, and about 69,800 from Mexico.
The “totality of the anti-immigrant climate” threatens the stability of the workforce — and “the ability of older people and people with disabilities to access home health care,” Espinoza said.
A DHS official said “economic considerations are not legally permissible.” TPS designation hinges on whether the foreign country faces adverse conditions, war, environmental disaster.
The biggest hit to the immigrant workforce may come from another program — family reunification, said Robyn Stone of research at LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit groups that care for the elderly. Trump is seeking to scrap the program, which he calls “chain” migration, in favor of a “merit-based” policy.
Osterman, the MIT professor, said the sum of all of these immigration policy changes may have a serious impact. If demand for workers exceeds supply, he said, insurers may have to restrict the number of hours of care that people receive, and wages may rise, driving up costs.
“People aren’t going to be able to have quality care,” he said. “They’re not going to be able to stay at home.”
Angelina Di Pietro, Dicenso’s daughter and primary caretaker, disagreed. “There’s not a lot of people in this country who would take care of the elderly,” she said.
open up visas for caregivers and you will get more Filipino English speaking good caregivers than you need.
Why is illegal taking care of grandma?
“Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a humanitarian program that gave them permission to work and live here after the January 2010 earthquake devastated their country.”
Is it just me, but going on 8 years doesn’t seem like “temporary”.
Hey...you never know when there could be another earthquake or tremor. Just to be safe let them stay here and receive various forms of welfare forever at our expense. It is the only thing that makes any sense and is “sensitive”.
my boat, lol! Sorry, it’s my hubby’s boat, I doubt he would give it up.
That’s what I get for dictating and not spellchecking.
But I would vote for you :-)
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