Worthless Foreign Degree/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A person who had a high-paying/prestigious job in another country does menial work in the setting of the work.

  • Straight: Bob worked as a doctor in Troperistan, but works as a janitor in Troperia.
  • Exaggerated: Bob was the CEO of a Fiction 500 company based in Troperistan, but works as a janitor in Toperia.
    • Bob has multiple Ph.D.s from Troperistan but can only get work as a janitor in Troperia.
  • Downplayed: Bob worked as a doctor in Troperistan, but can only find work as a medical assistant in Troperia.
  • Justified: Bob's Troperistanian qualifications and certificates aren't recognized by Troperian hospitals for various reasons.
    • Bob doesn't speak Troperian very well, if at all.
    • Employers may be suspicious that "foreign" degree may be used by diploma mills as cover.
  • Inverted: Bob was a lowly janitor in Troperistan, but when he arrives in Troperia, he's offered a job as a doctor.
  • Subverted: The chief of medicine at the hospital Bob is applying to work at makes like he's going to reject Bob, but hires him.
  • Double Subverted: ...as a janitor.
  • Parodied: All the janitors at the hospital have prestigious medical degrees from foreign countries.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob was a doctor in Troperistan who can only find menial work as a janitor in Troperia. Alice, on the other hand, was a short order cook from Troperistan who got a high-paying systems analyst job in Troperia. Charlie, a third immigrant from Troperistan, worked with Bob at their old hospital, and does a similar job as a surgeon in Troperia.
  • Averted: Bob, a doctor from Troperistan, finds a similar job as a doctor in Troperia.
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded: ???
  • Invoked: "Hey, let's ask Bob the janitor. I'll bet he was a doctor back in Troperistan."
  • Exploited: Bob the janitor may not be officially recognized as a doctor, but Bob still has the skills of a doctor and people go to see him instead of "real" doctor because he gives cheap "advice" and they give him "presents". Of money. Totally not practicing medicine without a license at all.
  • Defied: ???
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Drama: Diane, an immigrant from Troperistan, won't let anybody but Bob operate on her ... but Troperia won't let Bob practice medicine.

Back in old country I was highly paid computer engineer! Now, I guide people back to Worthless Foreign Degree.


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