At a time when public conversations about immigration have become increasingly polarized, it’s worth pausing to remember the many ways immigrants and refugees strengthen Illinois every day. Instead of vilifying our immigrant neighbors, let’s remember that our local communities greatly benefit from immigrant professionals in many of our markets and industries, particularly healthcare systems in Illinois.
According to the American Immigration Council, jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields are some of the most in-demand jobs in the U.S. economy. These jobs are expected to experience some of the “highest growth rates in the next decade, second only to healthcare jobs.” And while immigrants already play a huge part in maintaining our country’s role as a leading innovator, immigrants will also be instrumental in assisting science and high-tech industries meet their full potential as their needs for high-skilled STEM workers rapidly increases in the future. Let’s look at the numbers: In Illinois, the share of STEM workers who are immigrants is 24.3% (“Immigrants in Illinois,” American Immigration Council website).
Additionally, as our nation ages and millions of “baby boomers become elderly, the U.S. healthcare system is facing unprecedented demand, adding jobs faster than any other segment of the economy.” As you can imagine, the landscape affecting the nation also affects Illinois, and many healthcare businesses and providers are struggling to find enough workers – in some rural areas, shortages are particularly acute. What many people don’t realize is that immigrants have already been filling some of our most obvious and undisputable healthcare needs. For example:
-In Illinois, immigrants are “twice as likely as the U.S.-born to work as home health aides, and twice as likely to work as physicians and surgeons.”
-Also, in Illinois, 18.3% of all nurses are foreign-born, and 22.1% of all our health aides are foreign-born.
One of the projects the Springfield Immigrant Advocacy Network (SIAN) designed to lift immigrant and refugee communities and their experiences, Resilient Conversations, (funded in 2024 & 2025 by Healing Illinois grants) is a moving community-based dialogue where our immigrant friends share with us their views on home, hopes, challenges, dreams and cultural expressions such as cooking, gatherings and life away from long-ago left homes. The poem below, from Resilient Conversation’s host and local nurse JennyRose Castillo Videña, opens a little window into some of the experiences our healthcare providers go through at times in which fear is a policy choice, and division brings harmful biases into our workplaces. Because our friends’ contributions are too rarely recognized, we want to honor the fact that some of our immigrant neighbors also serve us at times in which we are ill and the most vulnerable, and we need compassionate care along with their professionalism and loving dedication.
Verónica Espina is founder & president of the Springfield Immigrant Advocacy Network.
Pack up and Leave
By JennyRose Castillo Videña
Pack up and leave?
As if it’s a suitcase.
As if roots don’t grow bones.
I was told to pack and leave
after I said out loud
that my American Dream
is starting to feel like a nightmare.
I didn’t leave my home for adventure.
I left by necessity.
I left everyone I loved,
so my family could have a future
that didn’t depend on luck,
or storms,
or whether the house would still be standing tomorrow.
Yes,
I have a roof.
A car that gets me to work.
Food on the table.
My family doesn’t wonder where the next meal comes from.
So, I should be grateful.
Silent.
Content.
Right?
No.
Because I fear for my safety.
Because I fear for how my people are treated.
Because if you can’t see that as a problem,
then God bless you
and your ignorance of other people’s suffering.
To my brown and Black brothers and sisters:
Our fear is real.
“Pack and leave,” they say
a sentence born of privilege,
spoken by those who have never had to leave
anything behind.
If you knew immigrants,
you’d know this:
We don’t quit when things get hard.
We are built from generations of resilience.
We don’t get to quit.
We carry the dreams,
the debts,
the sacrifices
of entire bloodlines on our backs.
Some days, yes
some of us dream of going home,
of simpler lives,
of rest.
But if we all packed and left
America would still stand.
But would it still be great?
Twenty-seven percent of your doctors.
Sixteen percent of your nurses.
Twenty-two percent of your nursing assistants.
Fifteen percent of your PAs and NPs.
Immigrants.
I am one of over 200,000 Filipino nurses in this country.
My patients will tell you
I show up in their darkest days.
My co-workers will tell you
Filipino nurses don’t stop working when it’s hard.
My managers will tell you
my resilience, my knowledge, my values
are assets everywhere I go.
This is why immigrants make our country great.
Whether you like it or not,
We are not leaving.
You say, “Make America Great Again.”
I say: Pack that lie up and leave this narrative behind.
Because without our greatness
Where would America be?
JennyRose Castillo Videña is a Springfield Immigrant Advocacy Network (SIAN) Resilient Conversations Host, a poet, a writer and SIAN volunteer. She is also a nurse, advocate and friend.
This article appears in July 30 – August 5, 2026.
