As the online Concise Encyclopedia of Economics puts it:
The law of unintended consequences, often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people–and especially of government–always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended. Economists and other social scientists have heeded its power for centuries; for just as long, politicians and popular opinion have largely ignored it.
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Most often … the law of unintended consequences illuminates the perverse unanticipated effects of legislation and regulation.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/UnintendedConsequences.html
The perfect example is, of course, the travel ban: Rushed out without consulting anyone at State or DOJ or any other experts who could winkle out some of the likely consequences and try to ameliorate them; implemented chaotically, leaving the front-liners to figure out what the hell to do; throwing untold thousands of lives and livelihoods into limbo.
Much of the media focus has been on the people blocked on the cusp of coming to the United States, stranded abroad, or those afraid to leave, fearing they too will never be able to get back. But, of course, the effects of the ban ripple way out from those folks, and one wave of consequences is going to roll over Trump’s most fervid supporters:
Rural white folks.
Yes, indeed. People, for example in South Dakota, where doctors like Alaa Al Nofal fill a crucial gap:
At his pediatrics practice in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Dr. Alaa Al Nofal sees up to 10 patients a day. He’s known some of them since they were born. Others, he still treats after they’ve graduated from high school.
“I treat these children for Type 1 diabetes, thyroid problems, thyroid cancer, puberty disorders and adrenal gland diseases,” he said.
Al Nofal’s expertise is critical. He is one of just five full-time pediatric endocrinologists in a 150,000 square-mile area that covers both South and North Dakota.
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A Syrian citizen, Al Nofal is in Sioux Falls through a special workforce development program called the Conrad 30 visa waiver — which basically waives the requirement that doctors who complete their residency on a J-1 exchange visitor visa must return to their country of origin for two years before applying for another American visa. The Conrad 30 waiver allows him to stay in the U.S. for a maximum of three years as long as he commits to practicing in an area where there is a doctor shortage.
After President Donald Trump issued a temporary immigration ban restricting people from seven Muslim-majority countries — including Syria — from entering the U.S., Al Nofal is unsure about his future in America.
It’s not just Dr. Nofal who’s at risk:
Over the last 15 years, the Conrad 30 visa waiver has funneled 15,000 foreign physicians into underserved communities.
Sanford Health has 75 physicians in total on these visa waivers and seven are from the countries listed in the executive order. “If we lost Dr. Al Nofal and our other J-1 physicians, we would be unable to fill critical gaps in access to health care for rural families,” said Sanford Health’s Morrison.
And the ban could hurt the pipeline of new doctors, too. The Conrad 30 visa waiver program is fed by medical school graduates holding J-1 non-immigrant visas who have completed their residencies in the U.S.
More than 6,000 medical trainees from foreign countries enroll every year in U.S. residency programs through J-1 visas. About 1,000 of these trainees are from countries caught up in the ban, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges. J-1 visa holders who were out of the country when the ban went into effect were prohibited from entering the U.S. and unable to start or finish school as long as the ban is in place.
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“The stress and concern generated by the short-term executive order could have long-term implications, with fewer physicians choosing training programs in the states and subsequently magnifying the deficit in providers willing to practice in underserved and rural areas,” said Dr. Larry Dial, vice dean for clinical affairs at Marshall University’s school of medicine in Huntington, West Virginia.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/10/news/economy/visa-ban-rural-doctor-shortage/index.html
So will thousands of American-born doctors now flood into these bastions of Real Americans to take all those jobs stolen from them by those invading visa-holders?
