187.4
Economic Crisis and International Mobility of European and Non-European Health Workers in the South-East of France: Citizenship and Gender
Francesca Sirna, CNRS,
URMIS, Nice (France)
The present contribution aims to analyze the geographical and social mobility of European and extra-European nurses in the South-East of France (PACA) in the context of the global social and economic crisis.
If, on the one hand, the economic crisis that affects Europe has led to the strengthening of control over Europe's borders, to limit “irregular” migration, on the other hand we also observe increasing “elite” migration trends. In order to better reveal the process and the dynamics shaping these latter mobilities, I propose a comparative analysis of professional and geographical mobility of intra- and extra-European migrants (men and women) in the health sector, characterized by an increasing shortage, a strong feminization and an increasing international and geographical mobility since the beginning of the 2000s. Besides, as a matter of fact, the integration into the European Union area of new Eastern European countries (with the automatic recognition of qualifications and degrees) has produced a competition between Europeans and non-Europeans in the French health labor market. This has happened despite the historic links that France maintains with African countries – the Maghreb and the former colonies of sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, there would be a new hierarchy of health professionals and a reconfiguration of the access to this employment sector according to citizenship, but also gender. Furthermore, analyzing the international mobility of these professionals means also to understand the balance between northern and southern countries in a context of globalization and economic crisis and the intenational process of health inequalities reproduction.