Contexts, motives and experiences of Nigerian overseas nurses: understanding links to globalization

Abstract

Aims: Current understanding of the perspectives and experience of overseas trained nurses working in the UK and how these relate to conditions of globalization, is limited. This article (i) presents evidence on the contexts, circumstances and perspectives of Nigerian trained nurses working in the UK and (ii) examines their relationships to globalization by building on prior analyses that use Bauman's concepts of 'global' and 'local' perspectives.

Methods: The evidence derives from an exploratory qualitative investigation in the UK and Nigeria among a small sample of Nigerian trained registered nurses working in the independent nursing home sector in England (n = 25) and registered nurses, nursing tutors and returnee migrants in Nigeria (n = 7).

Findings: Nurses' migration motives arise from a deterioration in their economic, work and status situation over the past two decades in the context of a macro-economic decline in Nigeria. Their decisive motivation is to gain financially with a view to achieving certain material standards and prospects for self and children in Nigeria. Contrary to their expectations, they experience a loss in professional and social status in the UK.

Conclusion: In their de facto'global' migration, principally for economic reasons, Nigerian nurses hold a decidedly 'local' normative perspective. This is reinforced by their experiences of work tensions, which reflect the globalization of biographies.

Relevance to clinical practice: Further evidence such as that provided, on the contexts and perspectives of overseas nurses, as also of UK staff, will enable the appropriate management of developing world-UK nursing migration and its host system implications.