Going Global? The Regulation of Nurse Migration in the UK

Abstract

This article examines the growth of overseas nurse recruitment to the UK and reviews a number of explanations used by migration specialists to explain these developments. It is argued that these approaches provide an incomplete explanation and that an industrial relations perspective enables an integrated understanding of nurse mobility. By highlighting the role of the state in source and destination countries and by placing labour market institutions centre stage, a more adequate account of nurse migration to the UK is developed. Trends in mobility indicate that state policy and employer behaviour have resulted in the internationalization rather than the globalization of the nursing labour market. This facilitates state action to regulate nurse migration, although the results to date using forms of soft regulation have been modest.