Marking the release of a report on the barriers foreign-trained high-skilled immigrants face in the United States, this webinar examines programs and initiatives that assist with credential recognition, employment, and relicensure, as well as recent policy developments. Discussants review recommendations for community-based organizations, employers, and policymakers to expand successful efforts aimed at preventing brain waste. 

Nearly half of immigrant adults arriving in the U.S. since 2011 have a college degree—a far higher share than a quarter-century ago, when just 27 percent did. This striking but little noted shift in the composition of recent immigrant flows, driven in part by rising migration from Asia, comes as some policymakers press for a "merit-based" immigration system. This fact sheet examines rising human capital at U.S. and state levels.

As the U.S. workforce ages and the economy becomes ever more knowledge-based, policymakers face a key question: Do workers have the skills to meet tomorrow's demands? This report examines how immigrants and their children—the primary source of future labor-market growth—fit into the discussion. The report offers a first-ever profile of the 30 million immigrant-origin adults without a postsecondary credential.

With immigrants and their U.S.-born children poised to be the main source of labor-force growth, these adults are an important target for efforts to build the skills of the U.S. workforce to meet the knowledge-based economy of tomorrow. This fact sheet and state data snapshots explore the characteristics of adults without an academic degree or professional credential, by immigrant generation, race/ethnicity, and more.

In Staphylococcus aureus–caused endocarditis, the pathogen secretes staphylocoagulase (SC), thereby activating human prothrombin (ProT) and evading immune clearance. A previous structural comparison of the SC(1–325) fragment bound to thrombin and its inactive precursor prethrombin 2 has indicated that SC activates ProT by inserting its N-terminal dipeptide Ile1-Val2 into the ProT Ile16 pocket, forming a salt bridge with ProT's Asp194, thereby stabilizing the active conformation. We hypothesized that these N-terminal SC residues modulate ProT binding and activation. Here, we generated labeled SC(1–246) as a probe for competitively defining the affinities of N-terminal SC(1–246) variants preselected by modeling. Using ProT(R155Q,R271Q,R284Q) (ProTQQQ), a variant refractory to prothrombinase- or thrombin-mediated cleavage, we observed variant affinities between ∼1 and 650 nm and activation potencies ranging from 1.8-fold that of WT SC(1–246) to complete loss of function. Substrate binding to ProTQQQ caused allosteric tightening of the affinity of most SC(1–246) variants, consistent with zymogen activation through occupation of the specificity pocket. Conservative changes at positions 1 and 2 were well-tolerated, with Val1-Val2, Ile1-Ala2, and Leu1-Val2 variants exhibiting ProTQQQ affinity and activation potency comparable with WT SC(1–246). Weaker binding variants typically had reduced activation rates, although at near-saturating ProTQQQ levels, several variants exhibited limiting rates similar to or higher than that of WT SC(1–246). The Ile16 pocket in ProTQQQ appears to favor nonpolar, nonaromatic residues at SC positions 1 and 2. Our results suggest that SC variants other than WT Ile1-Val2-Thr3 might emerge with similar ProT-activating efficiency.

Two weeks ago, some friends and I toured Lucy Boston's house and garden. My friend Val had read Boston's books; her husband Dave hadn't heard of Boston but wanted to see the old house. We took a train from London to the nearby town of Huntington (pop 10,000), then a short taxi ride to Hemingford Grey (pop.230), a quaint small village on the River Ouse.

Here are photos of the town's main or high street:

Since we were early for our 2 PM house tour, we decided to explore the gardens. Lucy talks about designing and building the gardens in her memoir Memory in a House, which also contains some black and white photos of the gardens back when she published the book. However, I did not realize until her daughter-in-law Diana Boston gave us the tour how much of the gardens Lucy build from scratch. Apparently most of the yard was just meadow until she set to work.

What stunned me, Val, and Dave was how large the gardens were in size. We split up in the gardens, and they saw only the more cultivated side:

Recently while listening to WNYC, I heard a segment about the lack of diversity in children's literature. While the US's population is becoming more diverse, it is apparently not reflected in children's books. Lucy Maria Boston was a head of the curve since four of the Green Knowe books could be regarded as multicultural since they contain not only Asian and African main characters but also a physically disabled character and deal with the issues of slavery and exile due to war.

Ping, a young refugee from Burma, is the main human character in A Stranger at Greene Knowe and a supporting character in The River at Green Knowe and An Enemy at Green Knowe. Ping has spent most of his life in a hostel for displaced children and goes to stay at Green Knowe during his summer holiday. He is eventually asked by Mrs. Oldknow to live with her and Tolly at Green Knowe. His experiences as a homeless child trapped in the grey world of the London home cause him to appreciate not only the natural world around the house but also to empathize with the escaped gorilla, Hanno. Boston wanted to dedicate Stranger to a gorilla keeper that she knew but was forbidden to do so by the zoo since it portrayed captivity for animals as cruel and harmful to the animal. When Green Knowe is under siege from evil in Enemy, Ping calls back Hanno with a traditional prayer to help save the house.

Jacob, in Treasure at Green Knowe, is bought as a child in a slave auction by Captain Oldknowe as a companion for the Captain's blind daughter, Susan. Susan's mother is uninterested in Susan since she views her as an unmarriageable burden. Susan's blindness puts her outside of the normal constraints for an upper-class girl so she can spend her time climbing trees with Jacob and learning how to write with him and their tutor Jonathan. Susan's brother Sefton views Jacob as less than human, buying him clothes patterned on those of an organ-grinder's monkey. Both Jacob and Susan rely on each other to navigate the rules of a society that views them as worthless because of their respective race and disability. They work together to educate themselves and lead successful adult lives despite their differences in race, sex, and station.

Despite the fifty or so years since they were written, the books still hold up due to the quality of the writing, the strong characterizations, and the universal themes. They are well-worth being placed on any reading list, multicultural or not. Good children's books should be read whether or not they are written by US authors.

BRUSSELS — While the European Union has called on Member States to expand channels for foreign workers as a way to meet labour market needs and potentially tackle spontaneous migration, they have struggled to deliver on this pledge. To date, policies have focused more on attracting high-skilled workers, but less attention has been paid to admission of low- or middle-skilled nationals. Policymakers would do well not to overestimate the potential of legal channels to reduce irregular migration.

WASHINGTON — Latinos and immigrants are at least twice as likely to lack health insurance coverage as the overall population in three central Kansas City metro counties, a new Migration Policy Institute (MPI) study reveals. In fact, they are four times as likely to be uninsured in Johnson County, Kansas. 

WASHINGTON – Even as governments in Latin America and the Caribbean have taken generous and innovative steps to address forced displacement from Venezuela and more recently Nicaragua, the warm welcome has cooled in places amid the vast scale of the inflows, strains on public services and growing public concern.

WASHINGTON – Four years since the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law, all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have developed accountability plans that include blueprints for serving English Learners (ELs), as well as measuring these students’ progress and being accountable for their outcomes. This marked a significant development, as EL performance was previously not well integrated with factors that determined whether a school was performing well or poorly.

WASHINGTON — The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) today published the annual update to its data-rich article, Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States, offering readers a wealth of information that can help inform understanding about an issue that is the subject of much conversation.

WASHINGTON – While the new Trump administration public charge rule is likely to vastly reshape future legal immigration based on its test to assess if a person might ever use public benefits in the future, the universe of non-citizens who could be denied a green card based on current benefits use is quite small.

WASHINGTON – The federal Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA) requires states to publicly report annual performance and graduation rates for students in a range of areas, breaking out results for subgroups with unique characteristics, including English Learners (ELs). The objective is to help schools identify and close achievement gaps experienced by historically underserved groups of students.

WASHINGTON — Six million immigrant workers are at the frontlines of keeping U.S. residents healthy, safe and fed during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Migration Policy Institute (MPI) analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data issued today. While the foreign born represented 17 percent of the 156 million civilians working in 2018, they account for larger shares in pandemic-response frontline occupations: 29 percent of all physicians in the United States, 38 percent of home health aides and 23 percent of retail-store pharmacists, for example.

WASHINGTON – Even as 1.5 million immigrants and refugees are already employed in the U.S. health care system as doctors, registered nurses and pharmacists, another 263,000 foreign-born health care graduates are on the sidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic—many of them because of difficulties getting their credentials accepted by employers and licensing bodies.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. immigration system was dramatically reshaped by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which shone a harsh spotlight on weaknesses in visa and immigration screening processes. From the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to expanded national security protections in immigration and tourism policies, countless changes in the immigration arena have unfolded over the past 19 years.

WASHINGTON – As more than 33 million U.S. workers have lost their jobs since March amid the pandemic-induced economic crisis, immigrants are among the most vulnerable: They are more likely than the U.S. born to be laid off and to live in communities with high COVID-19 infection rates, and less likely to have health insurance coverage and access to a doctor or other usual source of health care.

The U.S. economy is facing an uncertain future as an aging workforce, stagnating labor force participation, skill mismatches, and automation reshape the labor market. This issue brief explores these forces and the role that immigration could play in supporting future U.S. economic growth. It also examines how immigration affects workers already in the country, both native born and immigrant.

This MPI webinar marks the release of a policy brief that explores program and policy opportunities to improve home visiting services for immigrant and DLL families currently underparticipating in these programs due to a lack of culturally and linguistically responsive programming and other barriers

Addressing the deep-rooted integration challenges unearthed by large-scale migration and rapid social change will require a combination of strategies. Governments in Europe and North America must create a new social contract for increasingly diverse societies that are confronting cycles of disruption. This report sketches a blueprint for an adaptive process oriented by skill needs rather than national origins.

India is the world's largest source for immigrant physicians, and for Indian-trained doctors and nurses the allure of working abroad is strong despite an acute domestic shortage of health-care workers. Against this pull, the Indian government has enacted a number of policies to limit and regulate the emigration of health-care professionals, though these have been more ad hoc in nature and not part of a fully realized strategy.

Interested in answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about immigration and immigrants in the United States? This incredible resource collects in one place top statistics from authoritative government and nongovernmental sources, offering a snapshot of the immigrant population, visa and enforcement statistics, and data on emerging trends, including the slowing of growth of the foreign-born population, changing origins, and increasing educational levels.

States publish a wealth of data about their English Learner students’ academic achievement and other outcomes such as graduation rates. But the answer to the question “Who is an EL?” is not always the same. This brief explains how the EL subgroup varies across states and types of data, and why it is important to understand these differences when making decisions about how ELs and schools are faring.

1 onion, grated 1 cup Greek yoghurt 1/2 cup olive oil 1/2 lemon, juiced 2 cloves of garlic, crushed 1 tsp. smoked paprika 1/2 tsps. ground coriander 1/2 tsps. ground cumin 500g chicken thighs, cut in to 3 cm pieces 2 tbsps. sesame seeds, toasted tabbouleh 100g burghul 2 1/2 cups frozen peas 1 handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped 1 punnit of cherry tomatoes, halved 1 handful of mint leaves, lightly chopped 3 shallots, thinly sliced 200g Greek feta, crumbled 1/3 cup olive oil 1/2 lemon, juiced 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon Good pinch of sea salt flakes and black pepper

This recipe was featured on Foodie Tuesday, a weekly segment with Raf Epstein on Drive, 774 ABC Melbourne, 3:30 PM, courtesy of Alice in Frames. www.aliceinframes.com

2 cups of fresh ricotta 4 eggs 2 tbsp. sugar Zest of 1 orange, 1lime and 1 lemon 1 cup of plain flour 60 g soft butter

Triple Citrus Syrup

This recipe was featured on Foodie Tuesday, a weekly segment with Raf Epstein on Drive, 774 ABC Melbourne, 3:30 PM, courtesy of Neil Perry. Neil's new book is "Spice Temple."

This recipe was featured on Foodie Tuesday, a weekly segment with Raf Epstein on Drive, 774 ABC Melbourne, 3:30 PM, courtesy of Neil Perry. Neil's new book is "Spice Temple."

Referred to as a Japanese 'pizza', okonomiyaki is probably best described as a cabbage fritter. There are many versions that can include seafood, pork belly, kimchi or cheese, and either served with the sauce described or with Japanese mayonnaise. Delicious snack food, which can also be a meal.

I love Christmas my all time favourite time of year. It's also a great time for awesome summer sweet produce. Muscovado brown sugar is a treacle like flavour and makes a welcome texture to a traditional pavlova.

This recipe was featured on Foodie Tuesday, a weekly segment with Richelle Hunt on Drive, 774 ABC Melbourne, 3:30 PM, courtesy of Hana Assafiri. Hana's new book is called "Moroccan Soup Bar: Recipes of a Spoken Menu."

It's rare for me to cook fresh figs as I think there is little that can better a squishy-ripe, jammy fig eaten just as is. However just sometimes when they are cheap (well, relatively speaking!) and plentiful, I make this dish; it makes a lovely, simple summer dessert. The thing to be mindful of when you're buying figs, is that they're often picked when they're under-ripe as they're easier to handle and store, however if they're like this they're rarely worth eating; look for figs that feel softly squishy when you gently cup them in your hand, and ideally have tiny splits in the tender flesh...your care will pay off in spades.

A good frittata is really simple to make, but it does need a little TLC to make sure that the eggs don't overcook. At its best the eggs are softly set and still really tender and the whole thing is such a pleasure to eat. So do take just a little extra care with this, it's really worth it.

This recipe for Kansas City ribs was featured on Foodie Tuesday, a weekly segment with Raf Epstein on Drive, 774 ABC Melbourne, 3.30PM courtesy of Lance Rosen. Lance's new book is called "Temples of BBQ".

1/2 cup chicken stock 1 pinch of saffron olive oil, for cooking 1 small brown onion, diced 1 tbsp. tomato paste 150 g Carnaroli rice or Arborio rice Himalayan salt and freshly ground black pepper 100 ml white wine 60 g grated parmesan finely grated zest of 1 lemon 100 g grated mozzarella 3 eggs 125 ml (1/2 cup) milk 50 g plain flour 160 g panko breadcrumbs (see Note) vegetable oil, for deep-frying

This recipe featured on Foodie Tuesday, a weekly segment with Raf Epstein on Drive, 774 ABC Melbourne, 3.30PM, courtesy of Maggie Beer. Maggie's new book is "Autumn Harvest".

This is a glorious match! Free stone yellow and white peaches are perfect at the moment but wont last much longer so enjoy them while you can

Figs are such a versatile fruit, they can be eaten raw, cooked, and sweet or savoury. Here I am baking them with goat's curd which is truly delicious. Wrapping them in prosciutto adds texture and saltiness and the mint salad adds a lovely freshness to the dish.

6 chicken thighs 1 egg 1/2 cup polenta 1 tbsp. sumac 1 tsp cumin seeds salt flakes and freshly ground pepper, to season 60 ml (1/4 cup) pomegranate molasses Avocado Tzatziki: 1 cup)Greek-style yoghurt 1 ripe avocado, flesh coarsely mashed with a fork 3 Lebanese cucumbers, grated, squeeze to remove excess liquid 3 garlic cloves, crushed 1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves 1 tbsp. chopped mint leaves juice of 1/2 lime pinch of Himalayan salt

This recipe features on Foodie Tuesday, a weekly segment on 774 Drive with Raf Epstein, 3.30PM, courtesy of Phillippa Grogan. Phillippa's latest book is "Phillippa's Home Baking".

700g minced lamb 30g pine nuts, roughly chopped 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped 1/2 onion, diced 1 garlic clove, finely chopped 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp ground coriander 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional) zest of 1/2 lemon pinch of salt and pepper 3 tbsp. oil Lemon Flatbread 1 cup plain flour 1 1/2 tsp baking powder pinch of salt 3/4 cup plain yoghurt zest of 1/2 lemon

Once you've peeled and cored the quinces there's really little work to do to make this gorgeous dessert. They just bubble away happily for a few hours while the sugar and long slow cooking cast their spell, transforming the quinces' hard, ivory-coloured flesh until it's meltingly soft and an incredible deep-rose colour.

1/4 small watermelon vegetable oil, for deep-frying 50 g vine leaves in brine 1/3 cup plain flour 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to garnish 500 g calamari, cleaned, scored and cut into bite-sized pieces, tentacles reserved salt flakes and cracked pepper 200 g green olives 200 g goat's curd, broken into small pieces

This recipe features on Foodie Tuesday, a weekly segment on 774 Drive with Raf Epstein, 3.30PM, courtesy of Shane Delia. This recipe is from Shane's book, and SBS series, "Shane Delia's Spice Journey".