Brain Waste in the Workforce: Select U.S. and State Characteristics of College-Educated Native-Born and Immigrant Adults

MPI research in the United States and Europe has demonstrated the challenges facing foreign-educated individuals who seek high-skilled employment that utilizes their talents and professional experience. In the United States, these challenges include difficulties in obtaining recognition of professional experiences and credentials earned from educational institutions abroad, acquiring professional-level English skills, navigating costly or time-consuming recertification processes, and building professional networks and U.S. job search skills.

In a series of fact sheets available here focusing on the United States and a dozen key states, MPI assesses the extent of “brain waste”—that is, the number of college-educated immigrant  and native-born adults ages 25 and older who are either unemployed or have jobs that are significantly below their education and skill levels. The fact sheets also offer calculations nationally and at state levels of underutilization of education among immigrant and native-born professionals with engineering, nursing, and teaching degrees at the undergraduate level. Individual fact sheets for the 12 states with the largest college-educated immigrant populations in the U.S. civilian workforce can be accessed below.

Among the key U.S. findings:

• 1.6 million, or 23 percent, of the nearly 7.2 million college-educated immigrants ages 25 and older in the U.S. civilian labor force are affected by brain waste.
• Brain waste particularly affects the foreign born who earned their bachelor’s degrees abroad, with 26 percent in low-skilled jobs or unemployed.
• 20 percent of college-educated immigrants who obtained their academic degree abroad worked in low-skilled jobs, compared to 12 percent of college-educated native-born workers.

State Fact Sheets