International Migration of Health Professionals and the Marketization and Privatization of Health Education in India: From Push-Pull to Global Political Economy

Health worker migration theories have tended to focus on labour market conditions as principal push or pull factors. The role of education systems in producing internationally oriented health workers has been less explored. In place of the traditional conceptual approaches to understanding health worker, especially nurse, migration, I advocate global political economy (GPE) as a perspective that can highlight how educational investment and global migration tendencies are increasing interlinked. The Indian case illustrates the globally oriented nature of health care training, and informs a broader understanding of both the process of health worker migration, and how it reflects wider marketization tendencies evident in India’s education and health systems. The Indian case also demonstrates how the global orientation of education systems in source regions is increasingly central to comprehending the place of health workers in the global and Asian rise in migration. The paper concludes that Indian corporate health care training systems are increasingly aligned with the production of professionals orientated to globally integrated health human resource labour markets, and our conceptual analysis of such processes must effectively reflect these tendencies

Immigration, the University, and the Tolerant Second-Tier City

BackgroundThe ongoing geographical shift in immigrant settlement patterns and the related settlement experiences of immigrants outside of the largest national cities continues to be of interest to policy makers, practitioners, and researchers alike. This paper explores recent immigration to Kitchener- Waterloo (K-W), a second-tier city (STC) in Ontario, through the conceptual lens of the creative community and the role of the university. PurposeQualitative research on immigrant settlement in Kitchener-Waterloo (K-W), Ontario has revealed the important role played by the region’s universities in attracting immigrants, but also in creating the feeling of a safe and welcoming space. This paper explores these findings in light of recent scholarship on the links between social diversity, the creative city, and economic development, and applies it specifically to the context of immigration to STCs. MethodsBetween 2004 and 2006 semi-structured interviews were conducted with visible-minority and European non-English-mother-tongue immigrants. Questions were asked of participants concerning their reasons for settling in the area, their experiences with regard to service delivery and other municipal functions, and their general perspectives on the nature of the community. In all, 21 immigrant couples were interviewed, with the majority being of South Asian origin (N =42). Two focus groups were held with European and non-European women (13 respondents). In addition, seven service providers and municipal and regional government officials were interviewed, In total, 62 respondents were included in 30 interviews/focus group sessions. Key Findings and DiscussionThe paper argues that greater qualitative assessment of the specific nature of STC communities, their community qualities, and the resources present can complement more abstract quantitative indices. Such attributes can, in fact, be used to highlight the specific roles played by key actors in the community, in this case universities. In the case of Kitchener-Waterloo, its universities attract immigrants to the region, and assist in their subsequent integration by creating spaces that are perceived as being safe and free from discrimination. The findings hint at some interesting strategies that are being used by skilled international workers, such as applying simultaneously for student and permanent immigration visas. This strategy should be seen as a method being employed by some immigrants in order to overcome international credential devaluation. RecommendationsPolicy implications are offered in relation to how universities, and, by extension, international students, factor into how Canada’s immigration policy is evolving in response to the demand for skilled immigrants. The recommendations are: Expand the reach of universities and colleges in second tier cities; Develop further means to integrate international students into the immigrant regionalization model; and Critically examine the use of international students as a talent pool while simultaneously advancing a neoliberal education funding regime that under invests in higher education

International Migration of Health Professionals and the Marketization and Privatization of Health Education in India: From Push-Pull to Global Political Economy

Health worker migration theories have tended to focus on labour market conditions as principal push or pull factors. The role of education systems in producing internationally oriented health workers has been less explored. In place of the traditional conceptual approaches to understanding health worker, especially nurse, migration, I advocate global political economy (GPE) as a perspective that can highlight how educational investment and global migration tendencies are increasing interlinked. The Indian case illustrates the globally oriented nature of health care training, and informs a broader understanding of both the process of health worker migration, and how it reflects wider marketization tendencies evident in India’s education and health systems. The Indian case also demonstrates how the global orientation of education systems in source regions is increasingly central to comprehending the place of health workers in the global and Asian rise in migration. The paper concludes that Indian corporate health care training systems are increasingly aligned with the production of professionals orientated to globally integrated health human resource labour markets, and our conceptual analysis of such processes must effectively reflect these tendencies

South Asian Diasporas in Canada

In May 2011 over 60 scholars gathered in Canada for a conference on; ‘Assessing the complexities of South Asian Migration’. This special issue of South Asian Diaspora on South Asian diasporas in Canada emerges from this event, and contains papers by scholars from multiple disciplines drawing upon various research methods and theoretical frameworks. As a collection the papers demonstrate the mature and evolving nature of research on Canada’s various South Asian immigrant communities (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives). This geographical diversity comprises what is termed ‘South Asia’, according to this journal’s aims and scopes at least, but there are several other territories commonly captured by the term ‘South Asia’. The diversity, and problematic construction, of the categorization ‘South Asian’ in Canada is explicitly examined in the first two papers by Sandeep Agrawal and Sutama Ghosh. Subsequent papers explore particular subsets of this diasporic community that are framed by national (mostly Indian) and other identity markers. Either implicitly or explicitly each paper considers identity not as fixed, but intersectional, and shaped through a recursive exchange between family, home, community, economy and state. Before introducing the papers in this collection, let us first begin with an official version of the South Asian community in Canada using various Statistics Canada reports. Such formal efforts to define a South Asian community often rely on a confusing array of ethnic, linguistic as well as national markers. In 2006 Canadians of South Asian background represented the largest visible minority group nationally at 1.3 million people, or about 4% of Canada’s total national population. At the metropolitan scale South Asians represented 11% of Toronto’s and 8% of Vancouver’s population in 2006 (Lindsay 2007). In 2001 South Asian Canadians were fairly equally divided between Hindu, Muslim and Sikh religious adherence, but linguistically English and Punjabi, followed by Tamil, were the most common mother tongue or language spoken at home (Tran etal 2005, 23). While 88% of South Asian Canadians stated they had a strong sense of belonging to Canada (higher than any other visible minority group) (Tran et al 2005), over a third indicated they had experienced discrimination (Lindsay 2007, 16). Within the South Asian community India (47%), Sri Lanka (13%) and Pakistan (11%) are the top countries of birth, this compares to 61%, 2% and 7% for the same national groups before 1971 (Tran et al 2005). The dominance of Indian nationals in the South Asian diaspora in Canada is clearly evident, and this overrepresentation is also reflected in the papers in this special issue. While South Asian diasporas in Canada are still overly Indian in composition, there has been diversification over the last 50 years, driven in part by changes in Canada’s immigration policy and external geopolitical events

Contextualizing the Global Nursing Care Chain: International Migration and the Status of Nursing in Kerala, India

In this article I explore the issue of nursing status in Kerala, India and how over time a colonial discourse of caste‐based pollution has given way to a discourse of sexual pollution under expanding migratory opportunities. Based on survey and qualitative research findings, I caution that the improving occupational status of nursing in India is not directly mapped onto social status, and this is particularly evident in the matrimonial market. In the light of these findings I argue that global nursing care chain (GNCC) analysis must assess more than just workplace contexts in order to conceptualize how global care chains (GCCs) interlock, and how they are differentiated from each other

South Asian Diasporas in Canada

In May 2011 over 60 scholars gathered in Canada for a conference on; ‘Assessing the complexities of South Asian Migration’. This special issue of South Asian Diaspora on South Asian diasporas in Canada emerges from this event, and contains papers by scholars from multiple disciplines drawing upon various research methods and theoretical frameworks. As a collection the papers demonstrate the mature and evolving nature of research on Canada’s various South Asian immigrant communities (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives). This geographical diversity comprises what is termed ‘South Asia’, according to this journal’s aims and scopes at least, but there are several other territories commonly captured by the term ‘South Asia’. The diversity, and problematic construction, of the categorization ‘South Asian’ in Canada is explicitly examined in the first two papers by Sandeep Agrawal and Sutama Ghosh. Subsequent papers explore particular subsets of this diasporic community that are framed by national (mostly Indian) and other identity markers. Either implicitly or explicitly each paper considers identity not as fixed, but intersectional, and shaped through a recursive exchange between family, home, community, economy and state. Before introducing the papers in this collection, let us first begin with an official version of the South Asian community in Canada using various Statistics Canada reports. Such formal efforts to define a South Asian community often rely on a confusing array of ethnic, linguistic as well as national markers. In 2006 Canadians of South Asian background represented the largest visible minority group nationally at 1.3 million people, or about 4% of Canada’s total national population. At the metropolitan scale South Asians represented 11% of Toronto’s and 8% of Vancouver’s population in 2006 (Lindsay 2007). In 2001 South Asian Canadians were fairly equally divided between Hindu, Muslim and Sikh religious adherence, but linguistically English and Punjabi, followed by Tamil, were the most common mother tongue or language spoken at home (Tran etal 2005, 23). While 88% of South Asian Canadians stated they had a strong sense of belonging to Canada (higher than any other visible minority group) (Tran et al 2005), over a third indicated they had experienced discrimination (Lindsay 2007, 16). Within the South Asian community India (47%), Sri Lanka (13%) and Pakistan (11%) are the top countries of birth, this compares to 61%, 2% and 7% for the same national groups before 1971 (Tran et al 2005). The dominance of Indian nationals in the South Asian diaspora in Canada is clearly evident, and this overrepresentation is also reflected in the papers in this special issue. While South Asian diasporas in Canada are still overly Indian in composition, there has been diversification over the last 50 years, driven in part by changes in Canada’s immigration policy and external geopolitical events

Indirect Pathways Into Practice: A Comparative Examination of Indian and Philippine Internationally Educated Nurses and Their Entry Into Ontario’s Nursing Profession

In Canada half of all internationally educated nurses (IENs) are employed in Ontario, and in 2010 the top three countries where new IENs had received their training were the Philippines, India and China. This presentation reports on preliminary results from an ongoing research project examining the experiences of IENs from the Philippines and India who intend to enter Ontario’s nursing profession indirectly via temporary migration streams. The preliminary survey results will be presented, including differences in the characteristics and experiences of the two groups as they follow migration and occupational pathways to enter Canada and the nursing profession in Ontario. The preliminary findings will highlight some of the issues the data reveal in terms of specific settlement experiences, issues of effective conversion of pre-migration training into professional practice post-migration, and how policy shifts toward temporary and two-step migration may be shaping the nature of IENs’ indirect pathways into practice

The Housing Preferences and Location Choices of Second Generation South Asians Living in Ethnic Enclaves

Canada has experienced the development of suburban ethnic enclaves by established immigrant diaspora groups surrounding major metropolitan centres. However, less is known regarding the housing and location preferences of their maturing offspring population, known as the second-generation. This paper seeks to explain the housing preferences and location choices of second-generation South Asians residing in Brampton\u27s ethnic enclaves, a suburban city on the periphery of Toronto. This research draws on the home leaving process and integrates the theoretical perspectives of ethnic enclaves and the life cycle. A telephone survey conducted in Brampton\u27s ethnic enclaves suggests a dominant preference of low-density, detached-style dwellings in suburban areas. The life cycle perspective has proven to be a powerful explanatory tool during the household-formation phase, but does not appear to be valuable during the independent-living stage, since ethnic enclave residency seems to persist. The importance of familial ties in the South-Asian culture, the growth of ethnic enclaves, traditional ideas of socioeconomic success and life cycle values during family-formation shape preferences for second-generation South-Asian-Canadians

The Housing Preferences and Location Choices of Second Generation South Asians Living in Ethnic Enclaves

Canada has experienced the development of suburban ethnic enclaves by established immigrant diaspora groups surrounding major metropolitan centres. However, less is known regarding the housing and location preferences of their maturing offspring population, known as the second-generation. This paper seeks to explain the housing preferences and location choices of second-generation South Asians residing in Brampton\u27s ethnic enclaves, a suburban city on the periphery of Toronto. This research draws on the home leaving process and integrates the theoretical perspectives of ethnic enclaves and the life cycle. A telephone survey conducted in Brampton\u27s ethnic enclaves suggests a dominant preference of low-density, detached-style dwellings in suburban areas. The life cycle perspective has proven to be a powerful explanatory tool during the household-formation phase, but does not appear to be valuable during the independent-living stage, since ethnic enclave residency seems to persist. The importance of familial ties in the South-Asian culture, the growth of ethnic enclaves, traditional ideas of socioeconomic success and life cycle values during family-formation shape preferences for second-generation South-Asian-Canadians

Sending Our Petitions to God : Nigerian Immigrant Healthcare Worker Settlement, Gender and the Role of Religious Networks

This paper provides a brief overview of a study aimed at understanding the lived experiences of health care migrants from Nigeria now living in Canada and their individual perceptions regarding their migration experience. We report here on an interesting finding of the research that highlights how Nigerian women migrants cope with the isolating effects of migration of resettlement through a profound attachment to spirituality and religious community networks