FMGs: Why America? Or why not America?

[Moty]

A question to: 1. FMGs who had to give up their dream specialty in home country to live in the US doing a less competitive and less favorite alternative, or 2. had to forgo dream specialty due to being FMG, for less competitive specialty in the U.S. or 3. Doctors abroad who had a dream to live in the U.S. but ultimately settled to do residency abroad, subsequently practicing medicine outside the US in order to do that highly competitive / favourite specialty that they couldn't qualify for in the U.S., how easy were your decisions on the matter? Was it all worth it? This comes after I heard someone talk about an Asian trained neurosurgeon who was very passionate about his job but gave it all up for his love of America and ended up, frustratingly, albeit not regrettably, an internist.

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[Mad Jack]

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The reasons behind people coming to America should be pretty obvious, given the living conditions and what the country can offer their children in regard to education and opportunities.
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[Moty]

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The reasons behind people coming to America should be pretty obvious, given the living conditions and what the country can offer their children in regard to education and opportunities.
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Wouldn't one make more in the UK as a neurosurgeon than as a US internist? I'd imagine other opportunities would be much greater as the former than as the latter.

 

[Mad Jack]

Wouldn't one make more in the UK as a neurosurgeon than as a US internist? I'd imagine other opportunities would be much greater as the former than as the latter.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2442143/table/tbl3/

Neurosurgeons earn, on average, the equivalent of $208,896.19 before taxes in the UK. That's about as much as in internist here makes, before the hefty income tax and VAT they get hit with.

 

[UBC2014]

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[Medstart108]

Its the salary and its also the educational opportunities for their children. America is still seen as the beacon of capitalism and its relatively open policy to the best and brightest means that it continues to attract the best from all over the world.

Sure, many of these doctors would love to work in other western countries, but most of these western countries either don't accept foreign trained doctors as easily as in the states or don't pay them nearly as well/don't speak English.

English is the de facto world language, its the second language for most of the world and the language anyone who wants to go international or make it big needs to know.