1666 



MAIN TRENDS IN IMMIGRATION 



Two main trends are discernible in the incomplete but still revealing 

 statistics of post-World War II immigration into the United States: a 

 large and rapid increase in the immigration of scientists, engineers, 

 and physicians in general, and an especially steep rise in the immigra- 

 tion of technical workers in the same categories from the LDCs. In 

 1947, only about 2,400 natural scientists, engineers, physicians, and 

 surgeons came as immigrants to the United States: not more than 

 400 — about a sixth— were from LDCs. By 1968 the numbers were up 

 t ) about 25,300 and 13,200 — more than half — respectively. According 

 to data compiled by Gregory Henderson of the United Nations Insti- 

 tute for Training and Research (UNITAR),^^^ the immigration of 

 engineers, scientists, and medical personnel from Taiwan rose from 

 47 in 1956 to 1,321 in 1967; in the case of India, from 100 to 1,415; 

 and in that of the Philippines, from 90 to 1,066. 



A third trend is a relatively greater increase in immigration of per- 

 sonnel in the same categories from the LDCs of Asia as compared with 

 those of Africa and Latin America. More than half of the 7,500 

 immigrant scientists and engineers of 1970 had last resided in Asia — 

 2,900 of these were from India. Data compiled by the U.S. Immigra- 

 tion and Naturalization Service and analyzed by the National Science 

 Foundation ^*^ give the following comparative figures for the fiscal year 

 1972, by country or region of birth (for each area, the first figure 

 represents scientists and engineers together, the second physicians 

 and surgeons) : Europe plus Canada — 1,887 and 757; Latin America — 

 756 and 523; Middle East— 556 and 683; Africa— 433 and 259; and 

 Asia— 7,599 and 4,875. 



THE GROWING INFLUX OF FOREIGN MEDICAL GRADUATES 



A fourth trend is the large and growing percentage of physicians and 

 surgeons within this group of talented immigrants — with emphasis, 

 again, on the LDCs as source. While in recent years there has been 

 some leveling off in immigration of scientists and engineers — partly 

 because of a decline in the aerqspace industry but largely, it would ap- 

 pear, from a 1972 revision of regulations by the Department of Labor 

 to require certification for employment of scientists and engineer im- 

 migrant candidates — there has been a contrasting steady increase in 

 the influx of foreign medical graduates (FMGs). According to Foreign 

 Medkal Graduates of the United States, 1970, a study of the American 

 Medical Association,^*^ FMGs have played an "important role" in 

 meetino; the chronically unfilled U.S. demand for doctors. As of Decem- 

 ber 31, 1970, there were 57,217 FMGs in the AMA's registry of physi- 

 cians in the United States, representing 17.1 percent of the total physi- 

 cian population of 334,028. This figure does not include 6,174 gradu- 

 ates of Canadian medical schools. It does count 5,972 Americans who, 

 failing to gain admission to the highly competitive medical schools of 

 the United States, went abroad for training; however, this number is 

 more than offset by an estimated 10,000 or more FMGs practicing in 

 the United States but not included in the AMA registry. 



2« 76!"d., pp. 109,5-1102. -■. • ,: , ;..:••...:..■..• 



2« /bid., p. 1115. , .'.? :^ :; .ii;?i-' ■ ■ r 



2« Ibid., pp. 1119-1121. 



