We need to make it easier for highly educated refugees to use their skills in the U.S.
Over the coming months, Americans will have the chance to welcome thousands of new neighbors, colleagues, and friends to the United States. According to the New York Times, roughly 64,000 Afghan refugees have already been resettled in the U.S. since the end of the war in Afghanistan, and the Biden Administration has set a goal to resettle 95,000 by September 2022. As we reflect on the tragedy and heartbreak which forced so many to flee their own country, we should ensure that newly arrived Americans have everything that they need to live prosperous and fulfilling lives.
Refugees and immigrants coming to the United States bring with them an enormous variety of badly needed skills — from health care work to tech expertise. But unfortunately, our confusing system of credentialing, coupled with the difficulty of procuring clear records and academic transcripts from other countries, prevents many new Americans from applying their skills in their career field once they arrive in the U.S. An analysis by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) found that more than two million internationally educated immigrants were un- or underemployed based on their education levels, costing the United States over ten billion dollars in lost tax revenue. This also leaves vital services understaffed. Approximately 165,000 internationally-trained immigrants in the U.S. with undergraduate degrees in healthcare are working in careers below their skill level, despite the country’s current shortage of healthcare workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Many newly-arriving Afghan refugees served as interpreters and aides to U.S. officers in Afghanistan, these valuable skills could easily translate to a profession in the United States if the system was ready to support that transition.
Immigrants and refugees do not face an easy path to having their professional credentials or degrees be recognized in the United States. They often face the prospect of starting their education all over again, and many cannot afford to complete another full undergraduate or postgraduate degree. Although credentialing evaluation services do exist, these are generally not available for free, and different licenses or institutions of higher education might require going through different services. For many new Americans, their arrival in the U.S. resets their professional achievements all the way back to square one — but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Currently, no national guidance exists that would help unify these disparate approaches, but there is bipartisan support to address this issue on the federal level. The bipartisan Improving Opportunities for New Americans Act, most recently reintroduced in June 2021 by Representatives John Katko (R-NY) and Jason Crow (D-CO), would direct the the Department of Labor to conduct an interagency study to examine barriers to employment for immigrants and refugees with academic credentials from other countries, including challenges to having credentials be recognized by institutions and states. This would be an important first step toward creating federal guidance and support for refugees and immigrants struggling to have their credentials recognized.
Since many immigrants and refugees have to leave their country without adequate documentation of their learning, prior learning assessments could be a great opportunity for them to earn academic credit without repeating courses or a program. A prior learning assessment (PLA) is an exam or process that some institutions use to allow students to demonstrate competencies gained through prior experience. Institutions can determine that the PLA is equal to a certain amount of credit toward a degree or credential, saving the student time and money by allowing them to earn credit for material they have already mastered. If implemented correctly, PLAs can give immigrants and refugees the chance to showcase the skills that they bring to the table without having to start from scratch.
Some of the most successful PLA programs take a holistic approach, combining exams with interviews and observations to fully assess skill ratings. For example, Alamo Colleges Workbased English Solutions program uses a combination of test-based assessments as well as one-on-one bilingual interviews to get a full picture of the student’s current level of preparation. Through this program, students can gain academic credit for experience from prior education and in job training, corporate training, military service, independent study, and volunteer services. Students who earn credits through PLA tend to spend significantly less time and money on their degree. Institutions should make sure that these assessments are available to their foreign-born students, and the federal government should provide support by allowing federal financial aid to cover the cost of these assessments.
Finally, it’s important to remember that refugees and immigrants face the same challenges that today’s students do. They are often adult learners who are parenting while working to support their families and need support and services to allow them to balance education and their basic needs. New Americans not only have to navigate those challenges as students, but they must do so while adjusting to a new culture. We need to make sure that these supports — from on-campus child care to financial and emergency aid — are accessible to refugees and immigrants who need them.
While the arrival of new refugees and immigrants into our country can sometimes be driven by tragic circumstances abroad, we should do our part to make that transition as smooth and as kind as possible. By reducing the education and workforce development barriers for new arrivals, we can make it easier for them to earn higher wages practicing the professions that they are already trained to do. Not only is it the humane policy choice, but doing so would also go a long way to addressing skills gaps in key areas and boosting our economic recovery. When we invest in today’s students’ success — whether they were born here or abroad — we all win.
