MONROVIA, Sept. 28 -- For most Liberians, the diaspora has a familiar face: the money transfer queue on Randall Street, the phone call before school fees are due, the barrel shipped home before Christmas.

By Rodney D Sieh, rodney.sieh@frontpageafricaonline.com

A new report suggests that picture captures only part of what Liberians abroad have to offer.

In hospitals, classrooms and social service agencies across Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Texas, tens of thousands of Liberian Americans go to work each day in the fields Liberia struggles hardest to staff. According to the report, nearly 20,000 of them work in education, health care and social assistance alone.

"The report moves this conversation from assumptions to...