Credentials of Immigrant Professionals

* Re “Immigrant Professionals in L.A. Area Hunt Dignity, Jobs,” May 20

Your article on immigrants and the lack of recognition for their “native degrees” was interesting. However, I wish you had broadened your story to include immigrants from countries other than Mexico, Nicaragua, Vietnam and the like. I came to this country--as a legal alien--from France. I had a university degree which was not known in this country so my first job in L.A. was to fold checks in the accounts payable office at USC. Not my dream, although people were very nice!

While working full-time, I went back to the university, obtained a master’s degree and am now in the process of finishing my PhD. I never was dependent on the government and always supported myself.

Immigrants make a choice when they leave their countries and must recognize that rules and laws in their new countries will not be changed for them--and I am glad that nobody allowed the doctor from Nicaragua to practice without a license. So stop whining, go back to school and obtain a degree which will allow you to become again what you were once in your own country. Many have done it!

FRANCOISE R. COREY

Long Beach

*

The problem lies not with the talents of the professionals who have sought refuge in our country but rather with the outmoded restrictions placed upon all foreign nationals by U.S. accrediting agencies, state licensing bureaus and other official state and federal regulating bodies.

As president of a global accreditation association, our organization has waged an ongoing battle with the educational establishment around the world, relative to the unilateral acceptance of degree programs and licenses across national borders. It is a shameful waste of talent to prohibit qualified individuals who graduate from recognized universities, from practicing their professions abroad.

Not only are these individuals restricted economically but they are also demeaned by the jobs they must take to support themselves and their families. Is this type of restrictive behavior on the part of official agencies not a violation of the GATT treaty? Many believe that it is.

Have we a right to say that university education abroad is less effective than our own system of higher education? The truth is that foreign universities often produce a superior professional rather than a less qualified one.

MAXINE K. ASHER

President, World Assn. of Universities and Colleges

Brentwood