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The views of migrant health workers living in Austria and Belgium on return migration to sub-Saharan Africa
BACKGROUND: The negative consequences of the brain drain of sub-Saharan African health workers for source countries are well documented and include understaffed facilities, decreased standards of care and higher workloads. However, studies suggest that, if migrated health workers eventually return t...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4943491/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27381038 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12960-016-0129-4 |
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author | Poppe, Annelien Wojczewski, Silvia Taylor, Katherine Kutalek, Ruth Peersman, Wim |
author_facet | Poppe, Annelien Wojczewski, Silvia Taylor, Katherine Kutalek, Ruth Peersman, Wim |
author_sort | Poppe, Annelien |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The negative consequences of the brain drain of sub-Saharan African health workers for source countries are well documented and include understaffed facilities, decreased standards of care and higher workloads. However, studies suggest that, if migrated health workers eventually return to their home countries, this may lead to beneficial effects following the transfer of their acquired skills and knowledge (brain gain). The present study aims to explore the factors influencing the intentions for return migration of sub-Saharan African health workers who emigrated to Austria and Belgium, and gain further insight into the potential of circular migration. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with 27 sub-Saharan African health workers in Belgium and Austria were conducted. RESULTS: As mentioned by the respondents, the main barriers for returning were family, structural crises in the source country, and insecurity. These barriers overrule the perceived drivers, which were nearly all pull factors and emotion driven. Despite the fact that only a minority plans to return permanently, many wish to return regularly to work in the healthcare sector or to contribute to the development of their source country. CONCLUSION: As long as safety and structural stability cannot be guaranteed in source countries, the number of return migrants is likely to remain low. National governments and regional organizations could play a role in facilitating the engagement of migrant health workers in the development of the healthcare system in source countries. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4943491 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-49434912016-07-26 The views of migrant health workers living in Austria and Belgium on return migration to sub-Saharan Africa Poppe, Annelien Wojczewski, Silvia Taylor, Katherine Kutalek, Ruth Peersman, Wim Hum Resour Health Case Study BACKGROUND: The negative consequences of the brain drain of sub-Saharan African health workers for source countries are well documented and include understaffed facilities, decreased standards of care and higher workloads. However, studies suggest that, if migrated health workers eventually return to their home countries, this may lead to beneficial effects following the transfer of their acquired skills and knowledge (brain gain). The present study aims to explore the factors influencing the intentions for return migration of sub-Saharan African health workers who emigrated to Austria and Belgium, and gain further insight into the potential of circular migration. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with 27 sub-Saharan African health workers in Belgium and Austria were conducted. RESULTS: As mentioned by the respondents, the main barriers for returning were family, structural crises in the source country, and insecurity. These barriers overrule the perceived drivers, which were nearly all pull factors and emotion driven. Despite the fact that only a minority plans to return permanently, many wish to return regularly to work in the healthcare sector or to contribute to the development of their source country. CONCLUSION: As long as safety and structural stability cannot be guaranteed in source countries, the number of return migrants is likely to remain low. National governments and regional organizations could play a role in facilitating the engagement of migrant health workers in the development of the healthcare system in source countries. BioMed Central 2016-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC4943491/ /pubmed/27381038 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12960-016-0129-4 Text en © World Health Organization; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2016 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution IGO License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/legalcode), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In any reproduction of this article there should not be any suggestion that WHO or this article endorse any specific organization or products. The use of the WHO logo is not permitted. This notice should be preserved along with the article's original URL. |
spellingShingle | Case Study Poppe, Annelien Wojczewski, Silvia Taylor, Katherine Kutalek, Ruth Peersman, Wim The views of migrant health workers living in Austria and Belgium on return migration to sub-Saharan Africa |
title | The views of migrant health workers living in Austria and Belgium on return migration to sub-Saharan Africa |
title_full | The views of migrant health workers living in Austria and Belgium on return migration to sub-Saharan Africa |
title_fullStr | The views of migrant health workers living in Austria and Belgium on return migration to sub-Saharan Africa |
title_full_unstemmed | The views of migrant health workers living in Austria and Belgium on return migration to sub-Saharan Africa |
title_short | The views of migrant health workers living in Austria and Belgium on return migration to sub-Saharan Africa |
title_sort | views of migrant health workers living in austria and belgium on return migration to sub-saharan africa |
topic | Case Study |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4943491/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27381038 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12960-016-0129-4 |
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