‘It is hard to stay in England’: itineraries, routes, and dead ends: an (im)mobility study of nurses who became carers

Abstract

This article presents findings from an Economic Social Research Council (ESRC) study on the roles of education in the trajectories of health care professionals who migrated to England and became carers. The study looks at the downward mobility and deskilling of these women, and their struggles to reverse their bungled career paths. The author maps the routes of women, who after receiving a nurse education in countries such as China, Malawi, Romania, Philippines, and India, attempt returns on their educational investments in England. The themes revealed that although these nurses developed ingenious strategies to advance their careers, many of them could not overcome the structural barriers that impeded their pathways to becoming health care professionals in a new country.