The African health worker migration is due to various causes, including lower wages, unfavorable working and living conditions, and poor health system management, to name a few. African health worker migration entails negative and positive impacts that need in-depth studies. Gaps in accurate, reliable, and disaggregated data impede a better understanding of Africa’s health worker migration trends, patterns, and challenges and hinder effective governance of this type of migration.
The African Centre for the Study and Research on Migration (ACSRM) aims to deepen understanding of the causes, trends, patterns, challenges, and policy implications of the international migration of African health professionals. Through this research cluster, the ACSRM aims to address the lack of in-depth qualitative studies and the lack of accurate, reliable, and disaggregated data and, overall, empirical studies on the trends, patterns, dynamics, and future scenarios about the international migration of African health professionals and the ensuing policy implications. A better understanding of the configurations and dynamics of African health professional migration and well-informed and data-driven policies aimed at addressing the challenges and opportunities of this type of migration requires in-depth qualitative and quantitative studies that consider the complexity of African health systems, the various migration and socioeconomic development trends in the African continent, and the evolving dynamics in the origin and destination countries and the international health labor markets.
The ACSRM aims to investigate the various patterns, trends, challenges, and opportunities of Africa’s international migration of health professionals by examining African health worker migration to the Global North and the Global South, as well as intra-African migration and temporary and permanent migration patterns.
The ACSRM will provide a deep understanding of the consequences of African health worker migration for health migration professionals and their families, origin, and destination countries, and most significantly on national health systems and will contribute to policy debates for effective governance of international migration of African health professionals that could benefit health worker migrants and their families and the origin and destination countries. This research cluster will analyze whether international migration of health workers results in brain drain, brain waste, brain gain, and the ensuing policies.
