Who Stays? Who Leaves? Who Comes Back and Why? Migrant Care Workers and Their Career Decisions

Care workers are in high demand globally. Highly skilled care professionals migrate to work at medical institutions; at the same time, less-skilled care givers tend to work at family-homes or small care facilities. Nurse migration has been known from South and Southeast to Northwest Europe. More recently, the number of migrant care workers from Southeast Asia has grown in Northeast Asia, Oceania, Europe and North America. As the local demand for elderly care workers expanded in aging parts of the world, regulations have been eased to accept more care workers from youthful part of the world. From population declining countries, as well, care workers migrate. By now, many hospitals and facilities are dependent on such immigrant workers. Accepting medical institutions and nursing homes have expressed their difficulties in finding quality workers and having them stay long. What motivated them to migrate and work? Why did they change their workplaces or quit jobs after migration, if they ever did? Studies have shown how much such migrant care workers as resources are in strong demands globally; still, we know little about their decision-making and influencing conditions. This session invites a variety of scholars who research diverse care workers to share and compare their analyses on such workers’ career decisions, their characteristics, and affecting social conditions, including national and regional policies as well as socio-cultural backgrounds. Presenters are expected to join this session from various countries and regions.