What Role Do Immigrants Play in the Hospital Workforce?

[dalton99a]

https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/what-role-do-immigrants-play-in-the-hospital-workforce/

What Role Do Immigrants Play in the Hospital Workforce?
Authors: Scott Hulver, Zachary Levinson, and Drishti Pillai
Published: Jun 17, 2025

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About one in six hospital workers are immigrants, overall (16%) and among clinical and nonclinical workers (17% and 15%, respectively) (Figure 1). Clinical workers are those who are health care professionals involved in diagnosing, treating, or otherwise caring for patients, including physicians, pharmacists, and technicians, as well as health care support occupations like nursing assistants. Nonclinical workers include building cleaning and maintenance, food preparation and service, office and support, and all other nonclinical workers. Immigrants make up about the same share of hospital workers (16%) as they do of workers overall (17%). Noncitizen immigrants make up a smaller share of hospital workers compared to workers overall (4% versus 8%) while naturalized citizens make up a larger share (12% versus 9%). Most immigrant hospital workers are citizens (74%), but about a quarter are noncitizen immigrants (26%). About seven in ten (69%) immigrant hospital workers are women and most are Asian (40%), Hispanic (22%), or Black (19%) (results not shown). The share of hospital workers who are immigrants has stayed constant at 16% since 2018 (result not shown).



Among clinical occupations, immigrants represent a relatively high share of physicians working in hospitals (27%) (Figure 2). About one in five (19%) physicians are naturalized citizens and another 8% are noncitizen immigrants. Certain physician specialties are already experiencing shortfalls, some of which are projected to worsen by 2037. Reducing the number of immigrant physicians and surgeons or limiting pathways for immigrants to work in the US could exacerbate these shortages. Immigrants also account for a relatively high share of nursing assistants (22%).

Sixteen percent of registered nurses (RNs) are immigrants, which is the same as the share of all hospital workers that are immigrants. RNs account for the largest percentage of clinical hospital workers by occupation (43% in 2023) (result not shown). An increasing share of hospitals are hiring foreign-educated nurses to fill RN vacancies according to prior KFF analysis, including about one third of hospitals (32%) in 2023 representing nearly half of hospital beds (45%).



Immigrants account for a relatively high share of building cleaning and maintenance workers at US hospitals and almost double the share of nonclinical workers generally (29% versus 15%) (Figure 3). This includes 17% of building cleaning and maintenance workers who are naturalized citizens and another 12% who are noncitizen immigrants. A larger share of immigrant building cleaning and maintenance workers are noncitizens compared to immigrant nonclinical hospitals workers overall.



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[mahina]

1. Maybe on the continent but not here.

So many nurses in Hawaii comes from the Phillipines, youʻd need Illocano or Tagalog just to know whatʻs going on.

Good article!