Manila native Rommel Go came to the U.S. in 1994 to complete his medical residency at New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine. There, he met another Filipino doctor, Maria Rabin, now his wife. In 1998 she moved to Albertville, Ala., to work under the J-1 visa program, which lets foreign-born physicians earn green cards if they practice in areas with few doctors. Go followed a year later. They stayed and became citizens in 2010.

Rommel Go

Photographer: Wes Frazer for Bloomberg Businessweek  

“You go where you can get a job. The doctor who led the practice decided to take me in, because he knew Maria and I were going to get married, and even though there really weren’t enough patients for me, he was planning to expand. I was living in Brooklyn, and people were asking me, ‘Why are you going to Alabama? You’re going to be lynched or something.’

“Initially I had some bad experiences. People wouldn’t trust the way I look or my accent and decide right there and then I’m not a good doctor. Even though I hadn’t spoken to them, they would want their co-pay back. That was pretty awful, but that was a long time ago. They know me now, and they ask me to be their doctor. When I need to, I can put out a good Alabama accent for patients. I think that’s why they like me.”

Maria Rabin-Go

Photographer: Wes Frazer for Bloomberg Businessweek  

“The first years in Alabama were hard. We were used to the city life. In New York, in Queens, you just call, and the Chinese place delivers. In Albertville, there were two Chinese restaurants. There was Southern food, a McDonald’s, and a Walmart. But the people were very nice, and most very appreciative. Even when we started, in the summer, people would give us homemade veggies or eggs that their chickens laid. It’s like they wanted us to feel we were at home.

“Every time we had a conference in another city, like in San Francisco, we would say, ‘We could live here,’ and we’d research on how to get a license. And then we’d say, ‘Life is good right here.’ The traffic isn’t bad, and it’s not as if you go to restaurants every night. In New York, we’d drive two hours to Long Island to get out of the city. Now we drive that long to get to Atlanta to get into the city.”