Applying a typology of health worker migration to non-EU migrant doctors in Ireland

Abstract

BackgroundResearch on health worker migration in the Irish context has categorized migrant health workers by country or region of training (for example, non-EU nurses or doctors) or recruitment mechanism (for example, actively recruited nurses). This paper applies a new typology of health worker migrants – livelihood, career-oriented, backpacker, commuter, undocumented and returner migrants (European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and WHO, vol. 2:129-152, 2014) – to the experiences of non-EU migrant doctors in Ireland and tests its utility for understanding health worker migration internationally.MethodsThe paper draws on quantitative survey (N = 366) and qualitative interview (N = 37) data collected from non-EU migrant doctors in Ireland between 2011 and 2013.ResultsCategorizing non-EU migrant doctors in Ireland according to the typology (European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and WHO, vol. 2:129-152, 2014) offers insight into their differing motivations, particularly on arrival. Findings suggest that the career-oriented migrant is the most common type of doctor among non-EU migrant doctor respondents, accounting for 60 % (N = 220) of quantitative and 54 % (N = 20) of qualitative respondents. The authors propose a modification to the typology via the addition of two additional categories – the family migrant and the safety and security migrant.ConclusionsEmploying a typology of health worker migration can facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the migrant medical workforce, a necessary prerequisite for the development of useful policy tools (European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and WHO, vol. 2:129-152, 2014). The findings indicate that there is some fluidity between categories, as health worker motivations change over time. This indicates the potential for policy levers to influence migrant health worker decision-making, if they are sufficiently “tuned in” to migrant health worker motivation.

Burnout in consultants in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in Ireland: a cross-sectional study

“…However, progress has been slow in Ireland, where the negative impact of the 2008 financial crisis and the associated 30% pay reduction continue to have effect. Many of the recommendations made by the MacCraith report, especially around retention, have not been successful 33 34. Poorer working conditions, unequal remuneration and type of contract were found to adversely affect BO levels among consultants in Ireland, where a two tier consultant contract exists 22.…”

Predictors of career progression and obstacles and opportunities for non-EU hospital doctors to undertake postgraduate training in Ireland

“…Therefore, it is important that doctors who are planning to migrate are aware of the training and career obstacles, as well as the opportunities, likely to be faced in the destination country of their choice, thus ensuring that their expectations are aligned with what the destination country has to offer. This has been highlighted in previous research [ 36 ], where, from the overall sample of 366 doctors, 55 respondents (24 %; 51 of whom had migrated passively) reported that they had received inaccurate information about the types of opportunities available to them in Ireland.…”

“…At present, there is a mismatch between what migrant doctors come to Ireland for, i.e. career progression and training, with what the Irish health system can offer in terms of postgraduate training and consultant posts [ 26 , 27 , 36 ]. Further research to compare the experiences of the two groups in our analysis (Irish-trained non-EU doctors and those trained outside Ireland) to those of Irish and EU nationals is warranted in order to fully examine the predictors of career progression in this context.…”

Passing through – reasons why migrant doctors in Ireland plan to stay, return home or migrate onwards to new destination countries

“…The beneficiary country was likely to be another high-income English-speaking country, as preferred by 70 % of foreign doctors who planned to migrate on from Ireland. These doctors could be considered to comprise variants of ‘career oriented migrant’ and ‘backpacker’ type migrants [ 17 , 18 ]. The findings in this paper show that onward migration, rather than returning home after having acquired training in another country, as has been previously proposed [ 19 ], may be the norm for some career-oriented migrants.…”