‘You can't stay away from your family’: a qualitative study of the ongoing ties and future plans of South African health workers in the United Kingdom
‘You can't stay away from your family’: a qualitative study of the ongoing ties and future plans of South African health workers in the United Kingdom
Background: Migration of African-trained health workers to countries with higher health care worker densities adds to the severe shortage of health personnel in many African countries. Policy initiatives to reduce migration levels are informed by many studies exploring the reasons for the original decision to migrate. In contrast, there is little evidence to inform policies designed to facilitate health workers returning home or providing other forms of support to the health system of their home country.
Objective: This study explores the links that South African-trained health workers who now live and work in the United Kingdom maintain with their country of training and what their future migration plans may be.
Design: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with South African trained health workers who are now living in the United Kingdom. Data extracts from the interviews relating to current links with South Africa and future migration plans were studied.
Results: All 16 participants reported strong ongoing ties with South Africa, particularly through active communication with family and friends, both face-to-face and remotely. Being South African was a significant part of their personal identity, and many made frequent visits to South Africa. These visits sometimes incorporated professional activities such as medical work, teaching, and charitable or business ventures in South Africa. The presence and location of family and spouse were of principal importance in helping South African-trained health care workers decide whether to return permanently to work in South Africa. Professional aspirations and sense of duty were also important motivators to both returning and to being involved in initiatives remotely from the United Kingdom.
Conclusions: The main barrier to returning home was usually the development of stronger family ties in the United Kingdom than in South Africa. The issues that prompted the original migration decision, such as security and education, also remained important reasons to remain in the United Kingdom as long as they were perceived as unresolved at home. However, the strong residual feeling of identity and regular ongoing communication meant that most participants expressed a sense of duty to their home country, even if they were unlikely to return to live there full-time. This is a resource for training and short-term support that could be utilised to the benefit of African health care systems.
Taylor, Katherine
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Blacklock, Claire
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Hayward, Gail
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Bidwell, Posy
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Laxmikanth, Pallavi
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Riches, Nicholas
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Willcox, Merlin
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Moosa, Shabir
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Mant, David
d2e30212-70ec-48c9-b80a-a45cf4bcc46e
17 March 2015
Taylor, Katherine
76eb8a09-d29e-4dff-803d-5ae6763697a9
Blacklock, Claire
c2d550f3-22dd-4936-8692-82d8b21b8301
Hayward, Gail
91362d6f-3c3b-4eae-8fc8-1571ccf184c1
Bidwell, Posy
befaab7f-81ad-4e10-9925-5dc7d7ac099f
Laxmikanth, Pallavi
f83f0015-1b53-4e2b-ad41-80d896d94070
Riches, Nicholas
f66d2f1b-c76e-4795-95e0-7bb20dd52acc
Willcox, Merlin
dad5b622-9ac2-417d-9b2e-aad41b64ffea
Moosa, Shabir
96f8c99d-602a-4122-8c2e-ed2a55114ea7
Mant, David
d2e30212-70ec-48c9-b80a-a45cf4bcc46e
Taylor, Katherine, Blacklock, Claire, Hayward, Gail, Bidwell, Posy, Laxmikanth, Pallavi, Riches, Nicholas, Willcox, Merlin, Moosa, Shabir and Mant, David
(2015)
‘You can't stay away from your family’: a qualitative study of the ongoing ties and future plans of South African health workers in the United Kingdom.
Global Health Action, 8 (26125).
(doi:10.3402/gha.v8.26125).
Abstract
Background: Migration of African-trained health workers to countries with higher health care worker densities adds to the severe shortage of health personnel in many African countries. Policy initiatives to reduce migration levels are informed by many studies exploring the reasons for the original decision to migrate. In contrast, there is little evidence to inform policies designed to facilitate health workers returning home or providing other forms of support to the health system of their home country.
Objective: This study explores the links that South African-trained health workers who now live and work in the United Kingdom maintain with their country of training and what their future migration plans may be.
Design: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with South African trained health workers who are now living in the United Kingdom. Data extracts from the interviews relating to current links with South Africa and future migration plans were studied.
Results: All 16 participants reported strong ongoing ties with South Africa, particularly through active communication with family and friends, both face-to-face and remotely. Being South African was a significant part of their personal identity, and many made frequent visits to South Africa. These visits sometimes incorporated professional activities such as medical work, teaching, and charitable or business ventures in South Africa. The presence and location of family and spouse were of principal importance in helping South African-trained health care workers decide whether to return permanently to work in South Africa. Professional aspirations and sense of duty were also important motivators to both returning and to being involved in initiatives remotely from the United Kingdom.
Conclusions: The main barrier to returning home was usually the development of stronger family ties in the United Kingdom than in South Africa. The issues that prompted the original migration decision, such as security and education, also remained important reasons to remain in the United Kingdom as long as they were perceived as unresolved at home. However, the strong residual feeling of identity and regular ongoing communication meant that most participants expressed a sense of duty to their home country, even if they were unlikely to return to live there full-time. This is a resource for training and short-term support that could be utilised to the benefit of African health care systems.
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Accepted/In Press date: 16 February 2015
Published date: 17 March 2015
Organisations:
Primary Care & Population Sciences
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Local EPrints ID: 403726
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/403726
ISSN: 1654-9716
PURE UUID: 6cf982cf-4b4e-4fe5-a380-d560d81c1578
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Date deposited: 09 Dec 2016 11:46
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:57
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Contributors
Author:
Katherine Taylor
Author:
Claire Blacklock
Author:
Gail Hayward
Author:
Posy Bidwell
Author:
Pallavi Laxmikanth
Author:
Nicholas Riches
Author:
Shabir Moosa
Author:
David Mant
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