The Care of Foreigners: How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare

While most think of immigration as the influx of people seeking shelter, survival and a livelihood in a land of opportunities, this story is different. Today you will hear what unfolded when in the face of a shortage of physicians in the US in the late 60's President Lyndon Johnson passed the Hart-Cellar Act which had a special provision, to supplement the physician shortage with a cadre of foreign medical graduates from South Asia and the Philippines to fill the vacancies in urban and rural centers. In the first 10 years 75,000 came. This show will bring you up close and personal to their commitment, their connections with communities, their contributions and their struggle to be recognized. Guest Eram Alam Eram Alam is an associate professor in the Department of History of Science at Harvard University. She specializes in the history of medicine, with a particular emphasis on globalization, race, migration and health during the twentieth century.