Gender or Gendered Demand of Care? Migration Decision-Making Processes of Nepali Care Workers

Abstract

The increasing demand for care workers in the global North has spurred the migration of the care workforce, especially of female nurses from the global South. This development is redefining women’s roles as breadwinners and the instigators of family migration. However, the migration of nurses from the global South-to-North needs further investigation into how these women are empowered to lead the migration process and the factors that influence the decision. I will explore the roles of migrants’ individual skills and competencies along with the demand for care workers in the UK’s labour market. This study is based on data from 49 in-depth qualitative interviews with Nepali care workers in the UK and their parents in Nepal. I argue that in the case of the migration of trained nurses from the global South to the North, individual and contextual factors become more important and influential than gender and power relations in the family in the decision-making processes. As a step towards addressing human resource shortages in the health and social care sectors, the UK has recently reached a bilateral agreement with Nepal to recruit Nepali nurses. While the migration of Nepali nurses is likely to increase, empowerment to migrants and adherence to ethical recruitment could be mutually beneficial for participating countries, migrants and their families.