ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the migration of physicians and nurses from sub-Saharan Africa, arguably the two most strategically important occupational groups in the health workforce and the most active participants in international mobility, and whose mobility dominates the discourse on the international migration of health workers. The main stakeholders affected by the international mobility of health professionals are destination countries, origin countries, and migrant health professionals themselves. The main goal is to manage the international mobility of health professionals in a manner that maximizes the social and economic benefits and reduces the negative social and economic outcomes for all three stakeholders. The basic proposition of the economic argument is that in a globalizing economy, the international migration of health professionals is a mechanism for reallocating scarce human resources from economies with low labour productivity to those with high labour productivity, which benefits both sides.
