TY - JOUR
T1 - Migrant dentists, health system responses and future challenges
T2 - a case study of the United Kingdom and Australia
AU - Davda, Latha S.
AU - Gallagher, Jennifer E.
AU - Short, Stephanie D.
AU - Balasubramanian, Madhan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Dentists, managing highly prevalent oral disease are in demand across the world and hence potentially highly mobile. Both the United Kingdom and Australia, continue to be favourable destinations for migrant dentists. This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the professional integration of migrant dentists in the UK and Australia, and health system responses, while explicating implications for future health workforce governance. In doing so, the paper adopts a system-thinking approach to analyse interactions between the migration system and other societal systems. This is the first multi-country study to analyse the professional integration of migrant dentists through the lens of health workforce and migration governance. The study draws on semi-structured qualitative interviews with migrant dentists in both countries, together with national systems registration and examination data and relevant policies, together with data from government and global datasets. Both countries are high-income countries with a relatively large dentist-to-population ratio maintained through reliance on migrant dentists. The health systems and migration governance have responded by increasing the number of local graduates with limited success in the UK, potentially due to organisational demands, and the multifactorial complex mutual influences between higher education systems, labour market, feedback loops and dentist migration systems creating a nexus.
AB - Dentists, managing highly prevalent oral disease are in demand across the world and hence potentially highly mobile. Both the United Kingdom and Australia, continue to be favourable destinations for migrant dentists. This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the professional integration of migrant dentists in the UK and Australia, and health system responses, while explicating implications for future health workforce governance. In doing so, the paper adopts a system-thinking approach to analyse interactions between the migration system and other societal systems. This is the first multi-country study to analyse the professional integration of migrant dentists through the lens of health workforce and migration governance. The study draws on semi-structured qualitative interviews with migrant dentists in both countries, together with national systems registration and examination data and relevant policies, together with data from government and global datasets. Both countries are high-income countries with a relatively large dentist-to-population ratio maintained through reliance on migrant dentists. The health systems and migration governance have responded by increasing the number of local graduates with limited success in the UK, potentially due to organisational demands, and the multifactorial complex mutual influences between higher education systems, labour market, feedback loops and dentist migration systems creating a nexus.
KW - Brexit
KW - COVID-19
KW - dentist
KW - Migration
KW - professional integration
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85180220832&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/1369183X.2023.2279738
DO - 10.1080/1369183X.2023.2279738
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85180220832
SN - 1369-183X
VL - 50
SP - 1177
EP - 1201
JO - JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES
JF - JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES
IS - 5
ER -
