Migrant healthcare workers: exploring resilience and capacity for circular migration

BACKGROUND: This study focuses on migrant healthcare workers’ experiences and explores mobility patterns in the middle of a global health crisis, aiming to explore the capacity for circular migration and support effective equitable healthcare workforce policy. METHODS: Romanian physicians working in Germany served as an empirical case study. We applied a qualitative explorative approach; interviews (n = 21) were collected from mid of September to early November 2022 and content analysis was performed. RESULTS: Migrant physicians showed strong resilience during the COVID-19 crisis and rarely complained. Commitment to high professional standards and career development were major pull factors towards Germany, while perceptions of limited career choices, nepotism and corruption in Romania caused strong push mechanisms. We identified two major mobility patterns that may support circular migration policies: well-integrated physicians with a wish to give something back to their home country, and mobile cosmopolitan physicians who flexibly balance career opportunities and personal/family interests. CONCLUSIONS: Health policy must establish systematic monitoring of the migrant healthcare workforce including actor-centred approaches, support integration in destination countries as well as health system development in sending countries, and invest in evidence-based circular migration policy. KEY MESSAGES: • Effective retention policy must consider mobility patterns of healthcare workers and motivational factors, calling for systematic data and research evidence. • Major push and pull factors reveal strong interconnectedness of healthcare systems and policy in sending and receiving countries, calling for more equitable health workforce policy.