The Trump administration’s proposed immigration policies could mean bad news for the long-term care industry.

According to a study published this month by Health Affairs, immigrants account for nearly a quarter of the long-term care workforce, which historically has seen high turnover and poor retention rates. The study found that immigrants make up 23.5% of the long-term care workforce, including 12% naturalized citizens, 8% legal non-citizens, and 3.7% undocumented immigrants, as well as accounting for 18.2% of healthcare workers as a whole.

“We rely heavily on immigrants to care for the elderly and disabled, particularly in their everyday care,” said Dr. Leah Zallman, the study’s lead author, an assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School and the director of research for the Institute for Community Health at the Cambridge Health Alliance. “These policies are going to leave millions of elderly and disabled stranded without care.”

The study concludes by saying, “Curtailing immigration will almost certainly move us in the wrong direction, worsening the shortage and the availability of high-quality care for elderly and disabled Americans.”

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