Immigration reform is necessary to expand the availability of caregivers, according to experts at the Brookings Institution.
“In the upcoming years, a confluence of factors will produce an unprecedented shortfall in the necessary supply of caregivers,” Brookings Institution’s Benjamin Harris, vice president of economic studies, and Liam Marshall, research assistant of economic studies wrote this month for the organization.
“If left unchecked, this shortfall will result in a series of harmful economic outcomes — including sharply raised caregiving costs, outsized burdens on informal caregivers and subpar quality of care.”
“Since demand for care is largely out of policymakers’ control, the most promising way to address these challenges is by expanding the supply of caregivers,” they added. “And one of the best strategies for expanding the supply of caregivers is through expanded pathways for legal immigrants.”
A solution to the nursing home staffing crisis
By 2030, 73 million baby boomers will make up over one-fifth of the total United States population, according to Census Bureau predictions. Immigrant care workers are expected to make up an increasingly large share of the nursing home workforce, according to experts.
“I believe immigrant workers are going to be one of the key factors in addressing the staffing crisis,” Hankyung Jun, PhD, a research fellow at Harvard Medical School, previously told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News. “Unless we see major improvements in working conditions and wage/benefit levels, hiring non-immigrant staff is going to stay difficult.”
Hiring full-time caregivers from outside the US also could improve quality of care in nursing homes, where providers have relied largely on agency staff since the pandemic, the Brookings experts noted.
“The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living has long supported immigration reform as one of many solutions to help strengthen the long-term care workforce, especially as nursing homes continue to face a historic labor crisis,” the organization said. “The need for Congress to expand and expedite opportunities for international healthcare workers who wish to live and work in the United States – especially those who are willing to care for our nation’s seniors – has never been more urgent.”
Strong immigration legislation
According to Brookings, one solution to the caregiver shortage may be the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act, introduced to Congress in November 2023. The bipartisan bill would allow the US Citizenship and Immigration Services to “recapture” green cards already authorized by Congress but not yet used. The visas would be offered for nurses, and up to 15,000 would be offered to physicians. No new visas would be authorized under the measure, but it would make 25,000 visas available for healthcare workers.
Additionally, the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act, which was introduced in May 2023 would give immigrants who performed essential work during the pandemic the opportunity to apply for a green card.
“Frankly everybody in our industry should be on Capitol Hill screaming about immigration reform,” Andy Carle, adjunct faculty and lead instructor at Georgetown University’s administrator training program,” said at a McKnight’s VIP Executive Conversation in March.
