Foreign-born workers can help alleviate staffing constraints plaguing aging-care industries, but strict immigration policies are keeping many qualified caregivers out of providers’ reach. That’s according to a new report by LeadingAge.
“The time has come to embrace new approaches to strengthening the nation’s caregiving workforce,” Katie Smith Sloan, president and chief executive officer of LeadingAge, said in the report. “The United States must take steps to leverage the full potential of the foreign-born workforce for the good of older adults who have contributed so much to our nation during their lives. The need is great, and we have no time to waste.”
The long-term services and supports (LTSS) industry, which includes home care, nursing facilities, adult day services and more, faces a deficit of workers able to meet the needs of a growing senior population. Turnover rates in home- and community-based services settings are as high as 64%, and burnout, stress and retirement threaten to strip the field of hundreds of thousands of registered nurses, the report said.
Foreign-born workers have the potential to stabilize the LTSS workforce by reducing turnover and improving quality of care, LeadingAge offered. Immigrants make up more than 30% of all home care and nursing home employees in the US, and they generally have higher retention rates than US-born workers, according to the report. However, antiquated immigration processes constrain these workers’ ability to enter the country, which bottlenecks providers’ workforce supply.
LeadingAge recommended that Congress raise the caps on all employment-based immigration visas to 210,000 each fiscal year, which would be a 50% increase over the current level. The association also proposed increases to the number of asylum seekers granted refugee status, as well as expanded work opportunities for international students seeking education in the US. By restructuring these immigration systems, the US can create a more sustainable supply of LTSS workers, LeadingAge said.
“Providers of long-term services and supports are at a critical juncture as they grapple with increasing demand for their services and a severe shortage of professional caregivers,” the report said. “Any effort to increase the number of foreign-born workers in LTSS workplaces will help providers expand their labor pools, decrease turnover, stabilize the workforce, and provide higher quality care.”
At an event moderated by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News last month, Sloan endorsed a broader approach to embracing immigrants in skilled nursing and senior care facilities. Those ranged from individual provider training programs that focus on wrap-around support and building relationships with residents to reform of governmental policies to redefine skilled immigrants who can receive certain visas.
This article originally appeared on McKnights Home Care
