Characteristics of the distribution of emigrant Indian radiologists, pathologists and anesthesiologists in the United States

We present the results of a questionnaire sent in the autumn of 1981 to all board certified specialists practicing radiology, pathology and anesthesiology who are graduates of Indian medical schools and now reside in the United States. Respondents were asked to indicate their Indian state of birth, the size of the community in which they were born, the location of their medical school, the size of the city in which they now reside and their reasons for emigrating to the United States. The respondents tended to settle in the larger cities of the Northeast and Midwest, filling, to some degree, positions provided by the movement of American trained physicians to the West and South. Most came from urban areas and from the more urbanized Indian states. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and the East Indian states were underrepresented. The limited opportuinities for specialty practice at home and the perception of an unmet physician demand in the United States were the two most important reasons for emigration. Job availability largely determined locational choice in the United States. The distribution of emigrants arriving from 1965 to 1975 were similar to that of a much smaller group of early emigrants. Restrictions on entry of foreign born, foreign trained physicians as prescribed by the Health Professionals Assistance Act of 1976 (Public Law 94-284) mandates that the cohort of young specialists will not be supplemented to a significant extent by future arrivals from the Indian sub-continent. This will create an encapsulated minority of highly trained Asian-Americans. As they grow older their locational choices and integration into American society bears watching.