HRO OneSource

Brain waste—When highly-skilled immigrants can not utilize their skills in the workplace, despite their qualifications. Brain waste results in underemployment and unemployment.

High-skilled jobs—For the purpose of this brief: jobs that require a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Highly-skilled immigrants—Immigrants with a foreign college degree or higher, typically possessing special skills or knowledge for a certain profession.

Low Skill or Survival Jobs—Jobs that require workers to have no more than a high school education and no more than 1 year of work experience.

Social capital—Social capital is the networks of relationships and shared values among people in a society.

Underemployment—Describes highly-skilled immigrants who are working in low-skilled jobs.

Unemployment—Describes immigrants seeking employment but being unable to find work.

Barriers to Career Advancement Among Skilled Immigrants in the US - Ballard Brief Over 2 million highly-skilled immigrants in the US experience underemployment and unemployment.