ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the longer-term migration of medical professionals from source countries in the South to destination countries in the North. It is recognized that intra-national migration and intra-regional migration are important; indeed, there is a continuum and circularity of migration from local to national to global levels. Medical migrants consist of professionals who enjoy equivalency certification in source and destination countries. Nurses and doctors, including highly-skilled specialists, are especially sought, but also in demand are dentists, pharmacists, and technicians. In July 2004, The New York Times featured an article by Celia Dugger on the brain drain of nurses from Sub-Saharan Africa. At the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Malawi's largest 1,000-bed hospital has only 30 nurses remaining, 26 of whom have expressed the intention to migrate. The NHS in the UK, meanwhile, has ambitious plans to expand care through continuing importation of nurses from abroad.
