Actually, it’s more the pharmacy technicians. This field seems to attract a lot of Asian and Indian immigrants. Basically, it’s the sort of people I’d expect to find in jobs that are underappreciated (i.e. poorly paid, poor hours, often with a high turnover rate) but require a level of education, skill, or trust/certification (such that you couldn’t prepare somebody for it with a weekend training course, transfer experience in a related department or field).
Are these jobs really that unpleasant, demanding, or undesirable?
Note: I’m not suggesting that these people, or jobs are less worthy or capable. It’s just a pattern I’ve noticed that immigrants, and other people less-picky about their employment tend to end up in jobs that require a little education (or other investment of time), a strong work ethic, and flexibility (i.e. willing to take whatever hours, conditions, etc. an employer gives). The jobs usually pay 20-50% over minimum wage, have varying schedules, and few opportunities for advancement.
The pattern is likely an unfortunate byproduct of their language skills, training at tertiary level in a second language is very difficult, for several reasons. I wouldn’t say they’re less picky, they just don’t have the same options or opportunities that native speakers do.
They try - I’m guessing (is this more an IMHO thread?) - to overcome their disadvantage by working hard, being more flexible, taking lower paid jobs etc.
Around here, I see a lot of South Asian pharmacists. From what I can tell, it’s a well paying job, good employment, good pay, requires 3 years (I think) of post-graduate study, and is a fairly high prestige job (I see it most among upper middle class South Asian families. It seems to be a solid technical field with good job security and benefits.)
My understanding is that it represents a very well-paying, respected job (medicine is typically a highly esteemed career field among Asians) that is not as crazily difficult or stressful as becoming a doctor.
I live in the Bay Area. EVERY job here attracts a lot of Asian and Indian immigrants. Simply because there is an enormous number of those immigrants living here.
When I was practicing, I made a lot of calls to Florida for snowbirds who were transferring prescriptions back and forth, and the pharmacists I spoke to were almost always Asian women who barely spoke English.