Registered nurse Shane Tyson was done with the U.S.

He was working in Minnesota at the not-for-profit Mayo Clinic Health System and the Olmsted Medical Center. But in 2025, Tyson says he became increasingly concerned about the deterioration of health care, as well as tighter immigration enforcement.

Then ICE agents arrested a patient as they were leaving a primary care appointment where he worked, Tyson says.

“That was definitely a wake-up call,” he said. “And I am married to a U.S. permanent resident that was born in Bolivia … and it scared the crap out of me for him and for the others in that situation,” Tyson told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC’s White Coat, Black Art.

Tyson says he’d been noticing Facebook ads from provincial recruitment service HealthMatch BC.The more he researched, the more he contemplated a move north. So he registered, got interviews with two B.C. health authorities, and received two job offers within a week.

Tyson is one of many health-care professionals making the move from the U.S. With shortages of nurses, physicians and other health workers, some provinces are actively recruiting U.S. health-care professionals— and they’re getting results.