Engendering Czech Healthcare Migration: How migration activities increase women's agency in global labor markets (Research Summary)

This research, based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Czech Republic, examines global healthcare migration and how it provides East European women with better opportunities for income and social capital leading. The analysis focuses on two interacting populations – female healthcare migrants (chiefly nurses) and recruiters – through whom the role of recruitment firms in the global market and how national healthcare systems create the “push” conditions that drive migration are examined. Embedded in the research is the impact of migration and migrant reintegration on the Czech healthcare system. This research challenges the notion that East European women migrate only as a reaction to oppression or exploitation. It also helps to illustrate migration patterns of healthcare workers from East European countries to non-European destinations, which if left unregulated or under-researched could lead to destabilized healthcare systems in the region.

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Heidi Bludeau, of Indiana University, was a 2011 Regional Policy Symposium participant.