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Nurses and physiotherapists will soon be in this category. (America has to import both at the present time.)

Actually this is another lie. The only reasoning for importing nurses and physiotherapists is we at this time are unwilling to let the market set the wages for these professions. there are many nurses who have left the profession who would be more than happy to get back into it for the right money and working conditions likewise physiotherapists. Thde problem is you are dealing with healthcare where the rates that may be cgharged for services are regulated and therefor paying a market wage is impractical so we import guest workers in this field.

My point is that the market demand and supply create the price people are willing to pay for any commodity, including service. Jobs which give personal service are the ones which offer career choices for the future in America. When career choices for women were limited to nurse, teacher or secretary, the available workfoce was huge and the pay correspondingly low.

During the next 20 years as boomers hit the wall of aging, they will need to pay more for help in the areas of healthcare, thus creating career opportunities for Americans looking for a career.

Thank you, harpseal, for beating me to the punch on that line. Absolutely correct. There is no nursing shortage, despite the near-daily news stories to that effect. There is a shortage of nurses who are willing to work under the current deplorable working conditions and low pay! I got my nursing license 30yrs ago and have watched the steady exodus of trained nurses over the years. I'm one of them. I have no interest in going back to work those awful hours, for low pay, terrible bureaucracies, and the expectation that minimum standards are perfection (I kid you not on that one). Try taking care of 10 very sick people who need your attention all at the same time, while their family threatens to sue you because you're not answering the call light fast enough, while you're trying to make sure that someone doesn't go into cardiac arrest while you're answering the doctor about why the labwork isn't ready and while you're trying to give medicines, you have to listen to verbal assaults on everything from lousy hospital food to uncomfortable beds to sloppy housekeeping. Oh, and did I mention mandatory overtime and shift work and holidays? And nary a word of thanks--mostly complaints--from everyone: patients, families, administration. Any wonder why nurses are leaving active practice in droves?

Hospitals have LONG ignored the real adverse conditions nurses have labored under. Rather than spend the money to address those concerns, they've found it cheaper to hire foreign nurses (especially filipinos)who are willing to work under these conditions for low pay. The trade off for these nurses is that they get to enter the country legally and then send for their family.

There are thousands and thousands of nurses licensed but not practicing currently. So, I repeat: not a nursing shortage, but a shortage of nurses willing to put up with the abuse. Sad, but true. Oh, and to add insult to injury (you got me started), hospitals won't even rehire nurses like me who've been out of practice for several years. Yes! Sometimes people ask me why I don't go back in to nursing, and even if i were fool enough to want to go back to those working conditions, I'm not hirable as a nurse. I can only be hired if i've nursed within the last 2 yrs. Otherwise, i'd be required to go back to school for a full 1-2 yrs at a cost of thousands of dollars out of my pocket.

Now, if the hospitals were REALLY interested in rehiring nurses who've left the profession, do you think they'd put such onerous requirements on hiring them? Nope. As i said, it's all a sham (which the media are buying)in an effort to legitimize and justify the hiring of cheap foreigners.