Doctors in a Strange Land: The Place of International Medical Graduates in Rural America

Throughout much of rural America, areas that once knew few immigrants now depend on foreign doctors for their health services. Doctors in a Strange Land provides an in-depth analysis of rural America’s reaction to, and acceptance of, the international medical graduates who have come to live and work in their towns. Leonard Baer’s study draws on case studies of two small, rural communities to identify who the immigrant physicians are and investigate how well they have been received. His research findings reveal complex issues of race, gender, religion, and language that are of great significance to the ongoing national debate about the place of immigrant physicians. Doctors in a Strange Land builds on the words of rural Americans, and the doctors who treat them, to provide new ways of thinking about the increasingly important roles of international medical graduates in the American health care system.