Choosing to Stay: Gender and Highly Skilled Health Professionals in Turkey

Guzel Ozmen, Hande

Highly skilled migration especially in the direction from underdeveloped to overdeveloped countries is increasingly the topic of the day. In the case of Turkey, women and LGBTQIA+ individuals particularly are expected more to emigrate to European or North American countries. Given the rising inflation and cost of living, a conservative political climate, deadly earthquakes, and gender-based violence, where physical safety and financial security are on shaky ground, it is no surprise that highly skilled immigrants increasingly choose to leave the country. The existing literature has focused on this newly emerging migration wave across different fields and different contexts (Adhikari 2019; Aktaş-Çelik 2023; Danış 2023; Iredale 2001). On the other side of the picture, scholars have been researching immigrants who decide to return to the sending countries (Cassarino 2004; Kılınç 2023; Künüroğlu 2023).

What is often left out from research on migration is, however, highly skilled workforce that choose to stay, in other words, voluntary non-migration or immobility. As Schewel also suggests, ‘migration studies suffers from a mobility bias’ (Schewel 2020). Within this context, this paper will seek to explore (i) how highly skilled women and LGBTQIA+ individuals negotiate their sense of belonging in Turkey, (ii) what motivates them to stay in the country, and (iii) how they navigate their interpersonal relationships when there is pressure from colleagues and family members to emigrate. I am specifically interested in highly skilled non-migrants in the health sector, as medicine is the field with the highest number of female immigrant workers. By unpacking these nonmigrants’ motivations and demotivations, as well as the experiences and emotions that surround being a highly skilled non-migrant, this paper will explore how women and LGBTQIA+ individuals negotiate their identities from an intersectional perspective, considering gender, sexuality, and the decision to not be an immigrant.