The Segmented Healthcare Sector for Migrant Physicians in Germany: The Case of
Turkish Physicians
According to the German Medical Association figures, the number of foreign physicians holding jobs in Germany increased to 63.767 as of 2023, a 104.1% increase in the last decade. The share of foreign physicians holding jobs constitutes 14.9% of the physician labor force in the country. Syrian physicians constitute 9.6% of foreign physicians, with the highest share in the country. They are followed by Romanian, Austrian, Greek, Russian, and Turkish physicians. Despite the increase in the number of foreign physicians in Germany, the existing literature points out a certain degree of segmentation in the German healthcare sector for foreign physicians. Firstly, foreign physicians are primarily recruited in rural areas, where avoided by other physicians due to fewer professional opportunities and social challenges. Secondly, foreign physicians are overrepresented in some medical specialties like psychiatry, gerontology, and internal medicine, where the vacancies are not filled. The paper will question whether the segmentation among German and foreign physicians has occurred in the German healthcare labor market. If it exists, how has it been produced? The paper will benefit from different theoretical frameworks to comprehend its multifaced nature. Dual labor market theory will help to investigate segmentation in the healthcare sector. Institutional discrimination theory and intersectionality will show how institutional and identity-based discrimination operate together to shape professional opportunities and positions available to foreign physicians. Network theory will assist in exploring the roles of migrant networks in physicians’ decision-making when choosing a workplace, federal state, or medical specialty. The market institutional approach will shed light on whether and how professional organizations and hospital policies reinforce segmentation in the healthcare labor market. Turkish physicians will be a focal group in this study but contrasted with foreign physicians from EU countries.