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Dodani and LaPorte (2005) suggest that over three quarters of all migrant doctors are in
the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. The English language spoken by
these countries facilitates the mobility of high skilled workers.
There is a variation in foreign medical doctors across Europe. Switzerland, Ireland and
United Kingdom are the European countries with high reliance of foreign doctors. In a
global context, the mobility in the top three European countries is also comparable to
those in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States (the major destinations
worldwide). According to recent data, the United Kingdom is the country with the largest
proportion of foreign trained doctors in the European Union, followed by Ireland (OECD,
2008). In 2008, about 38% of doctors in the UK have been trained abroad. This is more
than one in three medical doctors trained abroad. Indeed in some regions overseas doctors
comprise up to 50% of all junior doctors (George et al., 2007). In Ireland, the percentage
is quite similar. The corresponding percentage was 30.1% in 2007. The Nordic countries
(Norway, Finland, and Denmark) have also a significant number of foreign trained
doctors. For instance, the corresponding percentages were 10.9 % for Denmark and 7.2 %
for Finland in 2005. In Norway, the proportion of foreign doctors is estimated about
15.6%. Compared to countries with similar size, such as France (5.8%), and Italy, the UK
has almost eight times as many practicing doctors who were trained abroad (Dussault et
al., 2009). Switzerland has also a high proportion of foreign trained doctors and is
estimated about 18.8% in 2005. Belgium, Portugal, Austria, and Spain have high levels of
foreign trained doctors raging from 11 % to 18%. Turkey, Estonia and Slovakia have a
very low proportion of foreign medical doctors ranging from 0.02 to 0.7 %.
UK recruits health workers from the Philippines, African countries (especially South
Africa), India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, and it exports mainly to Australia,
Canada, and other high income English speaking countries (Watkins, 2005). According to
the General Medical Council (GMC) 67 and using data from registered doctors, the
countries of origin with the largest proportion of registered doctors are India (10.8%),
Pakistan (3.4%), and South Africa (2.5%) (see, GMC website) 68 . In Germany, almost
about 30% foreign medical doctors come from third countries in Asia, Africa, America,
67 All doctors working in the United Kingdom have to be registered with the General Medical council
(GMC) The GMC records the place where initial qualification was obtained and provides some information
68 Available at http://www.gmc-uk.org/doctors/register/search_stats.asp
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