Iranian couple bring medical expertise to NH | What’s Working
But wanting a better life for their two daughters, they decided to relocate to New Hampshire, where his relatives already lived.
Foreign-born workers who want to work in the United States can help ease the region’s labor shortage, but they often need to overcome obstacles first.
This family of four was at the Tehran airport the day the U.S. government’s travel ban took effect in early 2017.
“It was very disappointing because we sold all of our stuff — our house, our cars. We left our jobs,” Jalili, 53, said in the family’s two-bedroom apartment not far from busy Route 3.
The family spent a week in limbo before receiving approval to fly to America.
Even then, authorities held up their then-19-year-old daughter, Helia, from leaving for another day, forcing the family to split up.
U.S. government officials “had a problem with our government, not with people,” said Khamesi, 51. “We were only just people. We didn’t do anything.”
Like most medical professionals coming to this country, the pair couldn’t immediately practice medicine.
During her 18 years as a pediatrician in Iran, Khamesi said she handled “healthy children who came for a routine visit and very sick and ill patients you need to hospitalize.”
Her husband worked in a hospital six days a week as an anesthesiologist, sometimes handling as many as a half-dozen patients a day. “Most days, I faced an emergency situation,” he said.
Now, Jalili needs to complete several steps before he can work as an anesthesiologist in the United States, including passing a multi-step United States Medical Licensing Exam.
“I hope I can finish my exam and get a residency and get my favorite job,” he said. “This is my first dream.”
He took the first part Feb. 21.
“My exam was more difficult than it (was) supposed to be,” Jalili said in an email last week. “It was an eight-hour exam with 280 multiple choice questions. I really don’t know what the result will be.”
Hamid Jalili, in his Bedford apartment talks about how his family, including his wife, Bahareh Khamesi, center, and daughter, Haniya, are adjusting to a new country.
Jalili, who hopes to resume his specialty in the next few years, said he thinks people coming from other countries are motivated to succeed.
“People who immigrate to another country, usually, they are serious people,” he said. “Usually, they have important aims. Usually, they are more motivated for studying and to get a job.”
He said foreign-born workers can help address the state’s workforce shortage.
His wife said streamlining the process to come to and work in the United States could lead to more skilled workers.
“If the situation was easier than now, they could use more educated people here,” she said.
Khamesi decided to study diagnostic medical sonography at NHTI, a community college in Concord, and expects to receive her certificate in December.
“After graduation, I hope I can get a good job,” Khamesi said.
In 2017, the couple received their green cards, which allow both to live and work in the U.S. permanently, and they can become U.S. citizens in 2022.
Their older daughter, Helia, 22, is in Los Angeles studying biology and wants to become a veterinarian.
Their other daughter, 15-year-old Haniya, is a sophomore at Bedford High School and lives with her parents.
She said she thought the United States would look like Las Vegas.
“In Bedford, it was the complete opposite,” the teen said.
Jalili’s brother, Ali Reza Jalili, came to the United States more than four decades ago.
He is a professor of economics and accountancy at New England College in Henniker but lives 7 miles from his brother in Bedford. Ali Reza Jalili wanted Americans to know his family has no ill intentions.
“We are not all terrorists,” he said at his brother’s apartment. “The bottom line is that.”
Hamid Jalili got his green card through family ties, or what many call “chain migration” — one of several ways someone can qualify. His parents came to the United States more than 25 years ago.
Ali Reza Jalili said he thinks immigration laws need to be modified to require foreigners to bring skills that contribute to the American economy.
“That’s one of the few things I find myself in agreement with Donald Trump,” he said. “But this one, I think, he’s right.”
For now, the Iranian family lives off savings and help from family.
“The only issue that we have is the economy issue because we don’t have a job, and we used to have good jobs, both of us,” Hamid Jalili said. “It’s a little difficult for us.”
His brother believes employers often benefit from foreign-born workers who demand less pay than American-born job candidates.
“They are more eager to get a job,” he said. “They’re willing to accept the first offer. They’re not going to do a lot of bargaining, and in relative terms, what they get still is better than what they had before.”
source https://iranians.global/iranian-couple-bring-medical-expertise-to-nh-whats-working/
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