Migration and the Globalisation of Health Care: The Health Worker Exodus?

The international migration of health workers has been described by Nelson Mandela as the ‘poaching’ of desperately needed skills from under-privileged regions. This book examines the controversial recent history of skilled migration, and explores the economic and cultural rationale behind this rise of a complex global market in qualified migrants and its multifaceted outcomes.

John Connell pays particular attention to the increase in demand for migrants in more developed countries due to the complex ramifications of aging, and new opportunities and expectations. He illustrates how globalization has linked sub-Saharan Africa to Europe and North America, and created new demand in Japan for international migrants from China and isolated island states. The long-established skill-drain, with its impact on household relations and negative consequences for health care, is carefully balanced against new flows of remittances, the return of skills and complex regional changes. Wide-ranging policy interventions, and greater social justice, have been challenged by the rise of the ‘competition state’ and limitations to economic growth in the global south.

This comprehensive and definitive analysis of the global migration of health workers will prove an essential resource for academics and research students in health and social policy, and in the various disciplines that relate to migration, including sociology, economics and geography.

John Connell, Professor of Human Geography, University of Sydney, Australia