Foreign-born nurses in the US labor market

Abstract

SUMMARYThis paper examines immigration and the wages of foreign and native nurses in the US labor market. Data from the Current Population Survey identifies a worker's country of birth and the National Survey of Registered Nurses (NSRN) identifies nurses who received their basic training outside the US. In 2004 about 3.1% of the registered nurse (RN) workforce is foreign-born non-US citizens, and 3.3% received their basic education elsewhere. The principal countries of origin are the Philippines, Canada, India, and England. Regression results show a 4.5% lower wage for non-citizen nurses born outside of the US (Canadian nurses are an exception). The wage disadvantage is concentrated on foreign-born nurses new to the US; once a nurse has been in the US for 6 years there is no longer a significant penalty. Results from the NSRN show relatively little overall wage differences between RNs who received their basic training outside versus inside the US, but there is a significant wage disadvantage for those new to the US market. The presence of foreign-trained nurses appears to decrease earnings for native RNs, but the effects are small.

Foreign nurse importation and the supply of native nurses

“…4 See for example, Borjas (2003Borjas ( , 2006, Card (2001Card ( , 2005, Wozniak and Murray (2012). 5 A small number of papers have looked at the e¤ect of foreign nurse immigration on native nurses (Schumacher, 2011;Kaestner and Kaushal, 2012). Unlike previous work that tends to focus on the wage impact of immigration, our focus is on displacement e¤ects.…”

The international transferability of human capital in nursing

“…Some of FENs' earnings advantage may be explained by their higher likelihood of having a bachelor's degree, working in hospitals, and residing in urban areas. Schumacher (2011) analyzes immigration and its wage effects in the U.S. labor market of nurses. Although the primary focus of his paper is to examine whether foreign-born nurses depress wages of competing natives, he also uses regressions to compare wages of foreign and native RNs.…”

Population, Migration, Ageing and Health: A Survey

“…Combining data from the National Survey of Registered Nurses and data from the Current Population Survey for the period , Schumacher (2011 studies earnings differentials between foreign-born/trained and native nurses and the effects of foreign nurses' immigration on natives' wages. He finds evidence of a negative wage gap only for recent immigrants and of a very small, if any, negative effect of immigration on native wages.…”