Foreign Professionals

The Takaki reading today focused on the how Filipino professionals, especially doctors, were unable to practice medicine when they immigrated to the United States. In the states that did allow them to take licensing examinations the extremely strict regulations made it nearly impossible for foreign doctors to gain the certification needed to practice medicine in the field that they received training for. In Takaki it's stated that all those obstacles were put in place because immigrants were seen as "viable competition to American graduates" (Takaki 436). While some Asian American immigrants were able to pass the exams and get hired as doctors, they must have faced discriminations and hardships on the way. I think that part of the reason employers and patients would not want a foreign doctor, even though they may be just as capable, if not more, than white doctors is because of accent discrimination. I find this really interesting because people have different stereotypes about different accents. For example, a person with an English accent is thought of as well educated and sophisticated. But those same characteristics may not apply to Chinese accents or Vietnamese accents. I think that's just something to think about and reflect upon our own stereotypes.