ABSTRACT
Historically there was a long tradition of emigration from Ireland to Britain, which escalated after the potato famine in the mid-nineteenth century. The Irish government worried by increasing emigration. The history of the National Health Service (NHS) is aligned to a history of economic migration. For a foot in the door, incomers were lured to nursing, and it was the understaffed mental hospitals where they accumulated in greatest number. A high proportion of foreign nurses lived on site, where they developed a strong identification with the hospital. Few special requests were made for cultural or religious customs. Mauritian nurses were appreciated for their willingness to work on holidays and weekends, and to cover staff shortages on other wards. As implied by the title of this chapter, many chose night duty, working alongside similarly nocturnal compatriots. In modern society racial discrimination is prohibited and socially unacceptable particularly in the NHS with its heavy reliance on workers of black and Asian ethnicity.
