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III.1.3 Globalization and Migration: The Circulation of Health Professionals
One feature of globalization is the increased circulation of goods and services between
countries. Migration of individuals and families has seen acceleration the past decade,
among which the migration of professionals. Health workers are particularly concerned
with this migration. Poorer countries have become a major supplier of health workers for
the richer countries (Shafqat & Zaidi, 2007).
The most frequent state is that medical graduate from US and other developed countries
remain in those countries after graduation. Table III.1.1 shows that 25% of the
international medical graduates from the US remain in the country, the percentage is of
28.3, 23.1 and 40 for countries like UK, Canada and Australia, respectively.
Table III.1.1: Characteristics of International Medical Graduates in Physician
Workforces of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
Source: Mullan (2005)
This phenomenon could find justification in the fact that some countries, which suffer a
shortage in doctors and nurses try to retain recently trained graduates from poorer
countries. Mullan (2005) estimates that between 23 and 28 percent of physicians in the
United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, and that supply between 40
and 75 percent of these international medical graduates. In Pakistan, in 2004 out of 1100
medical students’ graduates from the Aga Khan University Medical College in Karachi,
900 have gone to seek more medical training in the US (Shafqat & Zaidi, 2007).
The exodus of young professionals is also exacerbated by systems that recognize
international degrees (Segouin et al., 2005; Mullan, 2007).
The medical "brain drain" has been characterized by the pillage of poor countries from
their medical human resources by the richer countries (Record & Mohiddin, 2006.)
Health workers mass departure to better destinations has plagued Africa, Asia and Latin
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