Brain drain of doctors from southern Africa: brain gain for Australia

Oberoi, Sumit; Lin, Vivian

doi:10.1071/ah060025

Cited by 68 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…quality of life and crime) in order to distinguish between issues that are faced (15). Evidence suggests that exogenous have an influential role with regard to international migration (16). …”

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confidence: 99%

“…For instance of the 23,407 South African health workers practicing a medical profession in selected OECD countries 38% were in the United Kingdom, 30% in the United States, 15% in Australia, 10% in Canada and 7% in New Zealand (17). Two qualitative studies suggest that push factors are more influential than pull factors (16, 18) and it is important to gain a deeper understanding of reasons why health workers migrate. In addition, it is important to understand whether the reality of migration to the United Kingdom correlates to the expectations.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Security and skills: the two key issues in health worker migration

Bidwell

Laxmikanth

Blacklock

et al. 2014

Global Health Action

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BackgroundMigration of health workers from Africa continues to undermine the universal provision of quality health care. South Africa is an epicentre for migration – it exports more health workers to high-income countries than any other African country and imports health workers from its lower-income neighbours to fill the gap. Although an inter-governmental agreement in 2003 reduced the very high numbers migrating from South Africa to the United Kingdom, migration continues to other high-income English-speaking countries and few workers seem to return although the financial incentive to work abroad has lessened. A deeper understanding of reasons for migration from South Africa and post-migration experiences is therefore needed to underpin policy which is developed in order to improve retention within source countries and encourage return.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 South African doctors and nurses who had migrated to the United Kingdom. Interviews explored factors influencing the decision to migrate and post-migration experiences.ResultsSalary, career progression, and poor working conditions were not major push factors for migration. Many health workers reported that they had previously overcome these issues within the South African healthcare system by migrating to the private sector. Overwhelmingly, the major push factors were insecurity, high levels of crime, and racial tension. Although the wish to work and train in what was perceived to be a first-class care system was a pull factor to migrate to the United Kingdom, many were disappointed by the experience. Instead of obtaining new skills, many (particularly nurses) felt they had become ‘de-skilled’. Many also felt that working conditions and opportunities for them in the UK National Health Service (NHS) compared unfavourably with the private sector in South Africa.ConclusionsMigration from South Africa seems unlikely to diminish until the major concerns over security, crime, and racial tensions are resolved. However, good working conditions in the private sector in South Africa provide an occupational incentive to return if security did improve. Potential migrants should be made more aware of the risks of losing skills while working abroad that might prejudice return. In addition, re-skilling initiatives should be encouraged.

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Security and skills: the two key issues in health worker migration

Bidwell

Laxmikanth

Blacklock

et al. 2014

Global Health Action

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“…At that point, migration turns path dependent as it is transformed into expected behavior in the professional community. 9 …”

Section: Migration Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Push factors such as poor working conditions, lack of job satisfaction, and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS are cited as the main ones fueling the flow of doctors and other medical personnel to Australia. 28 …”

Section: Global Brain Exchange: Winners and Losersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modernization for Emigration: Determinants & Consequences of the Brain Drain

Portes

Celaya

2013

Daedalus

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This essay reviews existing theories of professional emigration as background to examine the present situation. Classical theories of the brain drain neglected the possibility that immigrant professionals would return to their home countries and make significant investments and economic contributions there. They do, in fact, with beneficial consequences for the development of these countries. The advent of the transnational perspective in the field of immigration has helped clarify these dynamics, while identifying the conditions under which professional cyclical returns and knowledge transfers can take place. Implications for the future attraction of foreign professionals by the United States and other advanced countries are discussed.

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“…There is a worldwide demand for scientists, regulatory specialists and leaders due to mergers and acquisitions within the sector and emerging drug markets such as Brazil, India and China. Significant power shifts have occurred within the pharmaceutical industry between headquarters (HQs) and local operations in order to capitalise on local knowledge and the need to possess talent that can deal with cross-border communication (Clark, Stewart and Clark 2006;Oberoi and Lin 2006). However, pharmaceutical firms are relatively late adaptors of HR functional activities such as GTM, leadership development and leadership mobility programmes (McAlearney 2006;Buxton 2010).…”

Section: The International Journal Of Human Resource Management 2429mentioning

confidence: 99%

Global talent management in science-based firms: an exploratory investigation of the pharmaceutical industry during the global downturn

Garavan

2012

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

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This paper investigates global talent management (GTM) in science-based firms during the global downturn. Literature on the resource-based view, the best-fit perspective and resource dependency theory is used to frame a qualitative study of nine global pharmaceutical firms that explores how multiple actors view GTM during the global downturn. The study investigates how actors perceive the strategic priorities of the firm during the downturn; the challenges of aligning GTM to address these priorities; the values of top management in supporting investment in GTM and the challenges encountered in coordinating and controlling GTM processes. The findings reveal that actors considered GTM to be strategically important because it enabled firms to simultaneously manage downsizing, expansion and structural alignment, and it helped them to prepare for growth in the future. Multi national companies exercised control and coordination of GTM during the global downturn through increased use of structural reporting, greater involvement of headquarter (HQ) and regional HQ in subsidiary talent decisions, networking and cognitive control strategies. The paper concludes by identifying direction for future research on this topic.

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Brain drain of doctors from southern Africa: brain gain for Australia

Cited by 68 publications

References 2 publications

Security and skills: the two key issues in health worker migration

Security and skills: the two key issues in health worker migration

Modernization for Emigration: Determinants & Consequences of the Brain Drain

Global talent management in science-based firms: an exploratory investigation of the pharmaceutical industry during the global downturn

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