6 The Danger of Devaluing Immigrants of unicorns (U.S. start-ups valued at $1 billion or higher) have at least one immigrant founder, and 71 percent of unicorns have at least one immigrant in a key management or product development position. Between their roles as founders and employees, immigrants in high tech on average create many jobs for the American people. Healthcare The American healthcare system is a large and complex organism it com- prises many professions and finds itself embedded in our education, phar- maceutical, research, and insurance industries. Across these healthcare occupations and healthcare-related sectors, immigrants play major roles in keeping us healthy. Immigrants are at the heart of healthcare in the United States. They represent 28 percent of physicians, 24 percent of dentists, and 38 percent of home health aides. One in four healthcare workers in the United States is an immigrant. Not only are immigrants the frontline physi- cians and healthcare providers who serve our communities, but they also are the workers who provide solutions to the American healthcare industries by helping to address contemporary challenges, such as managing labor short- ages, providing data security, regulating patient volume, and implementing telemedicine. This reliance on immigrants for healthcare will increase dra- matically in the near future simply because of the demographics of aging in the United States. The bimodal nature of foreign-born labor is very pro- nounced in this industry because immigrants are more likely than their native-born counterparts to perform both very high-skilled and very low- skilled services. Thus, from Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy and former head of Operation Warp Speed Dr. Moncef Slaoui to our pharmacists and nurses, immigrants fill key gaps in our healthcare workforce. Educating America The bimodal character of our immigrant population is clearly visible in the education field. Immigrants play a critical role in educating America, from early childhood education and childcare to college and graduate school. They help preschool children develop their motor skills, teach foreign languages, and teach science and technology in the engineering and mathematics fields, the latter especially at the undergraduate and graduate school levels. Immigrants make up 18 percent of daycare workers and 22 percent of postsecondary edu- cators. Most foreign-born postsecondary and university educators began as stu- dents at American universities and parlayed their success into a job, keeping their skills and economic contributions in this country for our benefit as well as theirs. This is most apparent in the STEM fields. In 2015, more than half of all engineers and computer scientists with doctorates were immigrants.
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