This interesting article on the Ladder that organizes labor by nationality in the London job market brought back to my mind a few interesting discussions I have had with a doctor friend who felt it was beneath his self respect to sign up to work for the British NHS.

His stories basically boiled to this: however long and hard you may work over there, if you are brown and foreign to boot, you will be stuck to doing scut work. No doubt scut work in Vilayat pays more generously than back in the Desh but essentially your circle of multicultural hell or paradise has been pre-chosen for you. Given this, he claimed that things are significantly better for FMGs (foreign medical graduates) here in USA - a claim that is qualified by Abraham Verghese in his autobiographical books as an Indian doctor making his way in America by essentially saying, "yes, provided you are willing to work in the rural outposts (and thus undesirable locations for the natives) such as Johnson City, Tennessee in his case.

In this context, I must also mention and recommend "Dirty Pretty Things"; an excellent movie starring Audrey Tautou of Amelie fame, dealing with the conditions and lives of 'illegal aliens' (to use the US terminology) caught in this modern day Dickensian London market.