As fewer foreign workers seek to come to the United States, countries like Canada are making their appeal to the U.S. workforce, starting with researchers and healthcare workers.
Anti-immigrant sentiment has been on the rise in the past year. And with President Donald Trump’s executive orders calling for mass deportations, student visas being revoked and reports of folks getting stopped at the border over the nature of their job, foreign workers have begun to sour on moving to the United States.
New research by jobs site Indeed found that global job seeker interest—measured by clicks on U.S. postings originating from abroad—is down 29% since August 2023, when foreign interest peaked.
This diminishing regard for U.S. jobs has only been fueled by the current administration’s restrictive immigration policies. The largest drop in interest came from architecture positions, which saw a 3-percentage-point drop. STEM jobs like civil engineering, research, and development and software development also decreased.
But while American companies seem poised to lose out foreign talent, the rest of the world is making its case. For researchers, Europe is calling. The European Union announced last week the Choose Europe program, which will grant over $500 million to researchers moving to Europe through 2027. The program is of interest to both global researchers looking for funding outside the United States and unsatisfied U.S.-based researchers who have either had their funding pulled or have grown wary of changing immigration policies.
For medical professionals, British Columbia, Canada is an enticing option. In a push to fill open healthcare jobs, the government is fast-tracking accreditations for those who are already licensed in the U.S. In just over a month since the province announced the program, it’s recruited over 1,200 American healthcare workers, including 113 nurses who are already registered and ready to work, according to the Vancouver Sun.
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