Is the medical brain drain beneficial? Evidence from overseas doctors in the UK

The ‘beneficial brain drain’ hypothesis suggests that skilled migration can be good for a sending country because the incentives it creates for obtaining training increase that country's net supply of skilled labour. Necessary conditions for this hypothesis to work are that the possibility of m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science & medicine (1982) 2007-09, Vol.65 (5), p.915-923
Main Authors: Kangasniemi, Mari, Winters, L. Alan, Commander, Simon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Brain Drain
Data Collection
Doctors
Emigration and Immigration
Evidence-Based Medicine
Foreign Medical Graduates
Health participants
Humans
International labour market
International labour migration
International market
International migration
Labor market
Labor Migration
Labour market
Medical education
Medical sciences
Migration
Miscellaneous
Motivation
Physicians
Physicians - supply & distribution
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Return Migration
Social sciences
UK Migration Brain drain International labour market Doctors
United Kingdom
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Summary:The ‘beneficial brain drain’ hypothesis suggests that skilled migration can be good for a sending country because the incentives it creates for obtaining training increase that country's net supply of skilled labour. Necessary conditions for this hypothesis to work are that the possibility of migration significantly affects decisions to take medical training and that migrants are not strongly screened by the host country. We conducted a survey among overseas doctors in the UK in 2002, which suggested that neither condition is likely to be fulfilled. Apart from the ‘beneficial brain drain’ argument, the survey findings also cast light on the backgrounds and motives of migrant doctors, and finds evidence that there could, nonetheless, be other benefits to sending countries via routes like remittances and return migration.
ISSN:0277-9536
1873-5347
DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.04.021