African Female Physicians and Nurses in the Global Care Chain: Qualitative Explorations from Five Destination Countries
Open Access
- 12 June 2015
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 10 (6), e0129464
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129464
Abstract
Migration of health professionals is an important policy issue for both source and destination countries around the world. The majority of migrant care workers in industrialized countries today are women. However, the dimension of mobility of highly skilled females from countries of the global south has been almost entirely neglected for many years. This paper explores the experiences of high-skilled female African migrant health-workers (MHW) utilising the framework of Global Care Chain (GCC) research. In the frame of the EU-project HURAPRIM (Human Resources for Primary Health Care in Africa), the research team conducted 88 semi-structured interviews with female and male African MHWs in five countries (Botswana, South Africa, Belgium, Austria, UK) from July 2011 until April 2012. For this paper we analysed the 34 interviews with female physicians and nurses using the qualitative framework analysis approach and the software atlas.ti. In terms of the effect of the migration on their career, almost all of the respondents experienced short-term, long-term or permanent inability to work as health-care professionals; few however also reported a positive career development post-migration. Discrimination based on a foreign nationality, race or gender was reported by many of our respondents, physicians and nurses alike, whether they worked in an African or a European country. Our study shows that in addition to the phenomenon of deskilling often reported in GCC research, many female MHW are unable to work according to their qualifications due to the fact that their diplomas are not recognized in the country of destination. Policy strategies are needed regarding integration of migrants in the labour market and working against discrimination based on race and gender.This publication has 63 references indexed in Scilit:
- Global care chains: a state‐of‐the‐art review and future directions in care transnationalization researchGlobal Networks, 2012
- Women on the move: Long-term care, migrant women, and global justiceIJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, 2011
- Imperial Nursing: Cross-Cultural Challenges for Women in the Health Professions: A Historical PerspectivePolicy, politics & nursing practice, 2010
- Care for the caregivers? Transnational justice and undocumented non-citizen care workersIJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, 2009
- Gendered poverty, migration and livelihood strategies of female porters in Accra, GhanaNorsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography, 2008
- New data on African health professionals abroadHuman Resources for Health, 2008
- The 'Brain Drain' of Physicians: Historical antecedents to an ethical debate, c. 1960-79Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, 2008
- Physicians' migration in Europe: an overview of the current situationBMC Health Services Research, 2007
- Editorial: Overseas-trained nurses, diversity and discrimination: perceptions, practice and policyJournal of Clinical Nursing, 2007
- Attitudes, women’s employment and the domestic division of labourWork, Employment & Society, 2005