The Brain Waste of Foreign-Educated Professionals in the United States

Based on an interdisciplinary perspective, this study is essentially grounded in Community Development and Policy Analysis with a focus on immigration issues. It corresponds to an assessment of the Community Capitals Framework to understanding the unemployment and underemployment rates of immigrant and refugee professionals in the United States. Data collected for the three levels of government, Federal, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and Fayette County, confirm the extent of unemployment and underemployment for immigrant and refugee professionals, and a lack of a specific policy to solving the problems. Moreover, the findings from the examination of a series of characteristics, including employment status, race or ethnicity, educational attainment, reveal a status quo at all three levels: A conservative policy (US incrementalism) limits the integration of foreign-educated professionals into the labor market, facing the "brain waste" phenomenon (underemployment) as their foreign credentials are not considered. Therefore, the situation requires a Comprehensive Policy Framework, a missing device that needs to be activated as the problem is rather institutional than of capitals.