Volume 21, Issue 1 p. 84-107
Themed Section: Multinational Migrations

Bus stops, triple wins and two steps: nurse migration in and out of Asia

MARGARET WALTON-ROBERTS

Corresponding Author

MARGARET WALTON-ROBERTS

Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Ave W., Waterloo, N2L 3C5 Canada

Work was conducted while affiliated to the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Search for more papers by this author
First published: 25 July 2020
Citations: 11

Abstract

The migration pathways in which nurses engage are increasingly heterogeneous. In this article, I contrast three types of nurse migration pathway from three country pairs – Vietnam to Germany ‘triple win’ bi-lateral migration (direct migration); India to Canada two-step study-work (multistage) pathway; and ‘bus stop’ multinational migration from the Philippines to Singapore and onwards to other sites. Each pathway is not exclusive to the country pair selected; rather, this occupational and pathway specific analysis permits a comparison of the structures and processes involved – the different kinds of hierarchies that underpin mobility; the migration and border-control infrastructure that channels mobility; and the differential incorporation of multi-nationally mobile lives and their gendered/racialized implications. The migration trajectories analysed in this article reveal how multinational and multistage migrations are produced (through state and non-state intermediaries and policy structures), and how they are productive of new subjectivities and imaginaries (shaped by what is possible and desirable).

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.