Return Migration of Health Care Professionals and the Transformation of Medical Practices: Bulgaria and Romania in Focus

Abstract

This paper analyses the category of returning health professionals in the field of maternal and child health in Bulgaria and Romania. It looks at the motivations, trajectories and experiences of return migrants on one hand, and on the effects their return migration has on the ways they themselves practice medicine at an individual level and the efforts and steps they take for bringing in transformations at a systemic level. The concept of “medical habitus” is used to grasp the reflexive move that medical professionals are compelled to make when shifting between different medical systems. The result of this shift is transfer of knowledge and transformative effects on the medical system that is framed as “professional remittances”.