14.     Recruitment of Foreign-Born Nurses Analyzed

The American Journal of Nursing recently ran a research article about the recruitment of foreign-born nurses.  The article found there is a large number of companies that specialize in recruitment of foreign nurses, most nurses are recruited from the Philippines and India, and that many foreign-born nurses feel the recruitment companies do not treat them fairly.

In the last 20 years, the number of recruitment companies that specialize in bringing foreign-born nurses to the United States has greatly multiplied.  In 2000, the foreign-born nurse recruitment industry consisted of around 30-40 firms.  In July 2007, there were 273 firms.  In January 2010, due to the economic crisis, the number of recruitment firms dropped to 211.  A survey of the recruitment firms found that most of them focus mainly on the Philippines and India.  However, the firms surveyed said they plan to expand their recruitment to other countries such as the United Kingdom, Israel, China, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Norway, Sweden, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, the Czech Republic and South Korea.

The surveyed recruitment firms range in size from small outfits that bring in only a few foreign nurses each year, to large companies that bring in hundreds of nurses.  The firms stated that the number of nurses brought in over the last couple of years has decreased due to the economic recession; however, most thought that the number of nurses brought in each year would increase by 2011.

Foreign-born nurses were also surveyed for the article through focus groups in New York City.  While the nurses generally felt positively towards the recruiters for helping them come to the United States, half of the nurses surveyed felt their rights as workers were not respected.  Nurses stated that recruiters did not always provide enough information about the recruitment and immigration to the US.  They also said that not all recruiters would let them have a copy of their contracts and that some of them had to pay fees to recruiters who then disappeared.  Nurse also complained that they did not always receive the salary they had been promised by recruiters, and their American counterparts were paid more.

[Note: A new association, the Association for International Health Care Recruitment (http://www.aaihr.org/) was recently formed by recruiting companies interested in promoting ethical practices in the field. The organization has developed a new code of ethics for recruiters.]