(Courtesy of asterix611 / flickr)

Is it fair for the United States to take advantage of the well educated, experienced nurses from the Philippines when it is known that it will leave nursing shortages back in the Philippines? This issue is quite debatable.

Those who believe that it is not fair for the United States to use the educated nurses of the Philippines will have two distinct arguments based on the effects of this emigration and migration from the Philippines to the United States. In the Philippines, this issue poses drawbacks such as nursing shortages in hospitals; beginner nurses end up taking their places, which reduces the credibility and reliability of the hospitals. In the United States, the immigrant Filipino nurses are willing to work for less than American nurses, so that makes working as a nurse less appealing and unfair for the American nurses.

On the contrary, there are many supporting arguments for those who believe that it is fair for the United States to take advantage of the well-educated, English-speaking, Filipino nurses. When the Filipino nurses arrive to the United States, they help relieve America’s nursing shortages. Filipino nurses also receive twenty times more money than they did while working in the Philippines, which is beneficial for sending remittance back to their families in the Philippines. In turn, the sending of remittance benefits the economy of the Philippines. Lastly, when they return to the Philippines, these Filipino nurses will have more training and experience needed to educate other people in the Philippines.

Is the selfish amount of nurses in the U.S. worth the harm done to another country’s economy and culture?