CHICAGO — It is often said that the problem with immigrants is that they’re poor and contribute only their cheap labor when they get here.

But rarely discussed is the fact that the United States does a terrible job of enabling the immigrants who already have post-secondary certifications, college degrees and professional work experience to continue their careers once they’ve arrived.

To start, a foreign-trained professional has to make his or her way to this country legally, navigating the red tape of visas and permissions, and, of course, master the English language. Then they must maneuver the thicket of proving their credentials and work experience.

If you’ve had to pull copies of your college transcripts in the last few years, you know it couldn’t be easier. It’s generally a short order on a website and a credit card payment, and you get PDFs within 48 hours.

But if you’re an immigrant or a refugee who has arrived here from a war-torn country, one decimated by a natural disaster or from a place where the government bureaucracy is slow and impenetrable, you’re in for an uphill battle. Not only to prove your credentials to professional certification boards, but also to show potential employers that you have documented experience.

And then it gets worse.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, there is no single federal structure governing professional certification in regulated occupations. “A profusion of overlapping, sometimes contradictory, local, state or national rules, procedures and examinations makes it complicated, time-consuming and expensive for immigrants and refugees to become recertified in the United States,” the institute said in a 2013 report. “The vast patchwork of organizations involved in the credential-recognition process — from professional associations and state or federal regulatory bodies to credential-assessment services and private- or public-sector employers — requires considerable effort to understand and work with.”

The stereotype of the brilliant, degreed immigrant taxi driver is not an urban myth. Let me introduce you to Guillermo Saavedra Sr., a former college-educated accountant who today works two jobs far below his expertise to keep his family afloat.

“Back in the ’90s, things in our native Peru were very difficult, the economy was bad and there was a crisis, so we got visas and came to this country. But it’s never how you think it will be,” said Saavedra, who settled in Herndon, Virginia. “I was very qualified in my country, but it was the language that was a real challenge. Then you start looking into how to get back into your profession and it’s so hard. I asked around and was told I’d have to enroll in college again and study for another two years and it was going to cost thousands of dollars. It really felt impossible.”

Saavedra simply couldn’t put his family’s livelihood on hold, and he took a string of jobs in food service and retail to make ends meet and help his children through college. To this day he works two jobs: one at a McDonald’s and one at his local Target store.

“It’s not easy and it’s a widespread problem — the immigrants come here and have families, so what are they going to do but take whatever job they can get?” said Saavedra. “It’s a problem because we come here as professionals, as engineers, medical staff, but they don’t see us that way.”

According to the Migration Policy Institute’s most recent data on foreign professionals, an estimated 1.9 million college-educated immigrants in the U.S. are working below their educational and skill levels, or are unemployed.

There are no easy fixes to the issue. Even starting by simplifying the recertification processes in high-barrier (and high-need) disciplines like medicine and engineering would require a broad coalition of gatekeepers and licensure organizations to come together and work on system-wide solutions.

And while the benefits to society would be obvious, the problem tends to be seen as a small one affecting a tiny segment of immigrants. Saavedra’s son, Guillermo Jr., who contacted me to ask that I speak out on behalf of others like his dad, refers to this blind spot as a “growing problem that has stolen the professional identities of a large portion of the educated immigrant community.”

The U.S. is in global competition for talented individuals in disciplines where there are shortages. Surely we can do better than to squander the talents of our own nation’s immigrants.

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Esther Cepeda’s email address is estherjcepeda@washpost.com. Follow her on Twitter, @estherjcepeda.