ABSTRACT

Chapter 2 explores the initial steps nurses take, with a focus on women’s agency in the decision-making process, given that migration in Nepal is a family affair. The chapter looks at the political economy of international nurse migration. A detailed discussion ensues on how International Educational Consultancies (IECs), or migration brokers, facilitate nurses’ moves, and navigate bureaucratic hurdles related to visa and work permit regulations in the UK. The steps to obtaining a nursing qualification in Nepal, then a visa and work permit and finally a nursing licence to work in the UK are all complex processes. Nurses often take shortcuts, under the guidance of IEC agents, friends and colleagues and other informal social networks. Quite often, nurses’ migration aspirations and dreams are so powerful they choose the most likely route for obtaining any kind of entry visa to the UK.