Fact Sheet: Migrant Teachers
Importing Educators
•ÌýMore than 19,000 migrant teachers are working in the United States on temporary visas - and the number is growing.
•ÌýMany of these migrant teachers have been victims of widespread abuse by recruiters and others.
•ÌýFor-profit recruiting firms and practices are almost entirely unregulated.
•ÌýThe full AFT reportÌý–Ìý"Importing Educators – Causes and Consequences of International Teacher Recruitment"Ìý–Ìýis available .
Recommended Reforms
•ÌýAdopt and enforce ethical standards for the international recruitment of teachers.
•ÌýCurrently there are no standards at all to govern practices for recruiting teachers from abroad to placements in U.S. public schools.
•ÌýImprove and expand access to government data that is necessary to track and study international hiring trends in education.
•ÌýImplement better mentoring and orientation programs for migrant teachers who often face stressful challenges of communication and classroom management.
•ÌýCooperate on an international level to protect migrant workers and to mitigate any negative impact of teacher migration on the school systems of the sending countries.
•ÌýRenew the commitment to make hard-to-staff U.S. schools more desirable places to teach and learn.
The Numbers
•ÌýThe number of overseas-trained teachers being hired in the United States is increasing steadily, with the current nationwide total at more than 19,000.
•ÌýIn 2009, these were the top 10 states in terms of the number of employer applications for hiring foreign teachers:
•ÌýTexas – 4,424
•ÌýNew York –1,850
•ÌýCalifornia –Ìý833
•ÌýMaryland – 828
•ÌýLouisiana – 694
•ÌýGeorgia –Ìý564
•ÌýFlorida – 277
•ÌýN. Carolina –Ìý261
•ÌýVirginia –188
•ÌýDistrictÌýof Columbia –170
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Research from the American Federation of Teachers
