Over the last 40 years, several thousand Nigerian-trained doctors have migrated to the U.S. to practice in what they regard as the state-of-the-art of global biomedicine. Based on interviews with Nigerian physicians, this article shows how their professional mobility, and their transition to the new professional environment of U.S. biomedicine, makes them aware of local differences in practicing medicine. Adapting to local ways of practicing in the U.S. creates a new sense of belonging and professional identity. Yet they also juxtapose highly technologised U.S. biomedicine with what they were trained to excel in within the medical profession in Nigeria - namely the 'art of medicine' - that is, possessing profound clinical skills to diagnose with few investigative technologies. By stressing their competence in the art of medicine, which they see as lacking among their U.S.-trained colleagues, they negotiate their position in a global biomedical landscape and reconnect to a distinctly Nigerian way of practicing medicine. Their narratives thus shed light on perceptions of multiple biomedicines from the point of view of physicians moving from the global South to the global North, and how within a global biomedical landscape both ruptures and connectivities of competence are imagined.
In the age of globalization, the transnational dimension of sciences like medicine seems to be given. However, the agents connecting different parts of this transnational biomedical landscape have yet to receive their due attention. Situated at the intersection of contemporary debates as well as theories of medical anthropology and migration in the 21st century, this book explores the experiences of Nigerian trained physicians who migrated to the US and the UK within the last 40 years. By drawing on individual professional life stories, Judith Schühle illuminates how these physicians disconnect from and (re)connect to diverse local social and biomedical contexts, becoming established abroad while at the same time trying to influence health care services in Nigeria through transnational endeavors.
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