Is recruiting foreign labor a wise solution to help curb the national nursing shortage crisis or just another move by the employing health care industry to import cheap labor? According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, a 21 percent increase in the need for nurses is projected nationwide from 1998 to 2008 and it could lead to a shortage of more than one million nurses by the end of this decade. This has created tremendous opportunities for healthcare staffing agencies, which recruit hundreds of nurses from India each year earning millions in revenue.
I know this much - the domestic workforce doesn't seem to share the same excitement about the profession as staffing agencies. Nurses' unions disagree with the premise that nurses from abroad will help solve the problem. Nursing organizations are voicing a deep concern that foreign nurses are not being incorporated into the unions upon entering the workforce. And this means hospitals and the like can hire foreign workers far cheaper than domestic nurses plus they don't complain about working conditions, because it's better than their home country. The result is a national deterioration of the nursing wage, which affects all nurses. "There is no shortage of nurses in Massachusetts," says David Schildmeier, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Nurses Association. "There is a shortage of nurses willing to work in hospitals under current conditions, assigned to too many patients, that is why people are leaving." more...
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The imporation of foreign nurses is just one example of the "monopoly capitalism" that has become omnipotent in the USA.
What is "monopoly capitalism"?
In "Monopoly capitalism" capital is exported from a country rather than the products produced by the native citizenry.
What is "capital"? Capital is money, labor, and industry.
Thus, in the case of nursing, the export of labor takes the form of the unjust legal immigration to the USA of foreign nurses which now represent approximately 40% of all American nurses. Illegal immigration and the outsourcing are other forms of the export of labor.
"Monopoly capitalism" tends to destroy "true capitalism" which is characterized by competition and free enterprise. Thus, in nursing, if there hadn't of been this mass immigration of foreign born nurses into the USA, "competition" and "free enterprise" would have increased the number of native born American nurses to meet the expected demand for the same through improved working conditions, better salaries, more educational opportunities, better advancement opportunities, and better salaries.
"Monopoly capitalism" tends to concentrate both economic and political power in a few individuals and entities while impoverishing the general populace (nursing labor force).
Economic theorists assert that "monopoly capitalism" is the last stage of capitalism before dramatic socio-economic-political change takes place which transforms capitalism into some form of socialism. Also, these theorists state that "monopoly capitalism" can result in dramatic labor shortages.
If we are to maintain our true capitalism and our personal liberties we need to appropriately address the unjust excesses of "monopoly capitalism".
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