Nurse Migration in Asia: Emerging Patterns and Policy Responses

Nurse Migration in Asia explores the ever-increasing need for a larger nursing and healthcare workforce in Asia, where countries are undergoing rapid transformation, given economic globalisation and commercial expansion.

The book examines some of the major forces that play key roles in the changing dynamics of 21st century nurse and care worker migration in the Asian context; changes which inevitably have global implications. The country case studies range from India, China, Singapore to Japan and the Philippines. Common themes emerge: the rapid and unpredictable nature of nurse migration patterns, including the direction, purpose and frequency of migration; and the changes in professional training, regulation, and workforce policy. Forces causing these shifts include the changing population demography, global and regional economic fluctuations, and finally changing professional roles and gender dynamics. The book analyses the response to these transformations, and how countries adjust their immigration regulations, to attract foreign healthcare professionals. It concludes by highlighting the importance for all countries to remain vigilant as regards the exacerbating workforce crisis, and engage in developing coherent policy governance frameworks to manage healthcare workforce at the national or international levels.

A valuable addition to the literature, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of nursing, health and social care workforce studies, population demography, labour markets, gender and international migration studies, globalisation in health and Asian studies.

Radha Adhikari is a Lecturer in University of the West of Scotland, UK. Her research focuses on international nurse migration, gender and global health inequality. Her latest research monograph, Migrant Health Professionals and the Global Labour Market: the Dreams and Traps of Nepali Nurses, was published in 2019, by Routledge.

Evgeniya Plotnikova is a teaching fellow at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She works for the Master of Public Health (MPH) online programme. Her research interests include health worker migration, bilateral labour agreements, and global governance in health.