5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

Globalization has increased mobility for health professionals. Today, internationally educated nurses and physicians comprise a significant portion of the global health workforce. More than one quarter of physicians in the US, UK, Sweden, and Australia are internationally educated. Across 22 OECD countries 14.5% of the nurse workforce is comprised of internationally educated nurses. In addition to these professionals, in 2023, care workers accounted for 58% of the healthcare workforce in the UK who were sponsored for skilled work visas. Across 31 OECD countries, 12.5% of long-term care workers have a fixed-term contract and are subjected to poor working conditions, including low pay, high physical and mental risks, and little recognition. We seek papers that focus on the structural, ethical, policy, and/or individual dimensions of the global health workforce. Topics may include factors that push health professionals from their countries of origin and pull them to their destination country; policy initiatives in destination and source countries, including those that lead to brain drain and brain waste; issues of professional status and professional integration; precarious status and mental health; gender, race/ethnicity, and intersectionality; forced migration; licensure constraints; health professional migration and COVID-19; cultural, linguistic, and intercultural competence; health professions education, credentials, and mobility.