Abstract
The worldwide shortage of health-care workers has led to a brain drain that is negatively affecting the health-care systems of less affluent countries. The authors study the factors encouraging nurses and doctors to migrate, measure the costs and benefits of such migration and analyse methods of foreign recruitment. They then look at the theories that help explain this phenomenon: human capital theory, theories of neo-colonialism and of globalization. They conclude with a policy discussion of possible strategies, which include addressing the “push” factors motivating migration, focusing training on local health-care needs, signing bilateral agreements that limit migration, etc.