The Neoliberal Globalization of Services Now Includes Nursing

The Exploitation of Low-Income Countries via Brain Drain

Abstract

In response to rising nursing vacancies, many high-income countries are turning to low-income countries to recruit nurses into their healthcare systems, a process that has exacerbated global health inequities. This review challenges the dominant neoliberal worldview of achieving economic prosperity through a largely unregulated free market at the expense of population health – instead suggesting that high-income country governments should implement alternative local solutions rather than reinforce global health disparities through the exploitation of migrant nurses. In fact, increased nursing vacancies in high-income countries are the result of domestic nurse retention crises, not nurse shortages. The primary drivers of migration of nurses from low-income countries to high-income countries include remuneration, security, career prospects and job satisfaction. The Global South faces a collapse of healthcare systems due to scarcity and maldistribution of nurses, while nurses who relocate face exploitation in their receiving high-income country. The reliance of high-income countries on recruitment of nurses from low-income countries is an unsustainable mechanism for global healthcare.