Immigrants Aid America During COVID-19 Crisis

David BierAs the COVID-19 spreads through the United States, the governmenthas closed its borders to foreigners. Yet millions of immigrants already here are working every day to defeat the contagion or mitigate its economic effects. From cleaning away germs to developing cures for them to delivering needed supplies, immigrants are disproportionately engaged in the effort to defeat COVID-19. Indeed, immigrants are overrepresented in nearly every job that is critical during this pandemic.Health Care and DiagnosisOn the front lines of this battle are the nearly1.7 million foreign ‐​born medical and health care workers who are caring for COVID-19 patients, according to theCensus Bureau ’s American Community Survey (ACS). Figure 1 shows that while immigrants composedonly 13.7 percent of the U.S. population in 2018, theywere 35.2 percent of the home health care aides in America (224,325), 28.5 percent of physicians (281,127), 20.9 percent of nursing assistants (365,466), 18.9 percent of health care diagnosing or treating practitioners (2,840), 18.5 percent of clinical lab technicians (73,314), 15.2 percent of medical assistants (98,383), 15 percent of registered nurses (569,534), and 14.9 percent of health technicians (24,530).Researching Cures and TreatmentsResearching cures and treatments for this virus will likely be the primary long ‐​term solution to the crisis, and immigrants are heavily involved in the relevant fields. The United States had more than 155,000 f...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs