IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v12y2023i4p211-d1115790.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Foreign Healthcare Workers and COVID-19 in Europe: The Paradox of Unemployed Skilled Labour

Author

Listed:
  • Senyo Dotsey

    (Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, 20122 Milan, Italy)

Abstract

This report provides an overview of the skilled migrant health workforce and their contribution to health systems in European countries, particularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Migrant workers at all skill levels have worked in key areas during the pandemic. Skilled migrant health workers, particularly medical practitioners and nurses, make up a significant portion of the frontline health workforce and are essential to keeping health systems in developed countries running. While skilled migrants often face fewer hard barriers (entry control policies: visa policy, work permit schemes, labour migration quotas), this workforce faces soft barriers (e.g., lack of recognition of foreign educational credentials and other restrictive or discriminatory measures) in accessing the host nation’s labour market, as evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article explores this phenomenon, focusing on Italy’s health sector and foreign health professionals’ dynamics. The report concludes by proffering some practical policy recommendations to promote the inclusion of migrant health professionals in the health and social care systems in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Senyo Dotsey, 2023. "Foreign Healthcare Workers and COVID-19 in Europe: The Paradox of Unemployed Skilled Labour," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-14, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:4:p:211-:d:1115790
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/4/211/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/4/211/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Dustmann & Tommaso Frattini, 2014. "The Fiscal Effects of Immigration to the UK," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(580), pages 593-643, November.
    2. Facchini, Giovanni & Lodigiani, Elisabetta, 2014. "Attracting Skilled Immigrants: An Overview of Recent Policy Developments in Advanced Countries," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 229, pages 3-21, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Senyo Dotsey & Audrey Lumley-Sapanski & Maurizio Ambrosini, 2023. "COVID-19 and (Im)migrant Carers in Italy: The Production of Carer Precarity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-18, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christian Dustmann & Giovanni Facchini & Cora Signorotto, 2015. "Population, Migration, Ageing and Health: A Survey," Discussion Papers 2015-17, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    2. Martin Guzi & Martin Kahanec, 2023. "Welfare Migration," Discussion Papers 65, Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI).
    3. Thiemo Fetzer & Stephan Kyburz, 2024. "Cohesive Institutions and Political Violence," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(1), pages 133-150, January.
    4. Dorte Sindbjerg Martinsen & Gabriel Pons Rotger, 2017. "The fiscal impact of EU immigration on the tax-financed welfare state: Testing the ‘welfare burden’ thesis," European Union Politics, , vol. 18(4), pages 620-639, December.
    5. Sascha O. Becker & Thiemo Fetzer, 2018. "Has Eastern European Migration Impacted UK-born Workers?," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 376, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    6. Adam Levai & Riccardo Turati, 2021. "The Impact of Immigration on Workers’ Protection," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2021021, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), revised 07 Sep 2021.
    7. Andri Chassamboulli & Xiangbo Liu, 2024. "Immigration, Legal Status and Fiscal Impact," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 54, October.
    8. Mihaela Simionescu & Yuriy Bilan & Grzegorz Mentel, 2017. "Economic Effects of Migration from Poland to the UK," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(46), pages 757-757, August.
    9. Peter Huber & Doris Oberdabernig & Jesús Crespo Cuaresma & Anna Raggl, 2015. "Migration in an Ageing Europe: What are the Challenges? WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 79," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 57886, January.
    10. Arnorsson, Agust & Zoega, Gylfi, 2018. "On the causes of Brexit," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 301-323.
    11. Arpita Mukherjee & Avantika Kapoor & Angana Parashar Sarma, 2018. "High-Skilled Labour Mobility in an Era of Protectionism: Foreign Startups and India," Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) Working Paper 362, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi, India.
    12. Dustmann Christian, 2024. "Migration ist kein Nullsummenspiel –ein Interview," Wirtschaftsdienst, Sciendo, vol. 104(8), pages 533-538.
    13. Bettin, Giulia & Sacchi, Agnese, 2020. "Health spending in Italy: The impact of immigrants," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    14. d’Albis, Hippolyte & Boubtane, Ekrame & Coulibaly, Dramane, 2019. "Immigration and public finances in OECD countries," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 116-151.
    15. Ndeye Penda Sokhna & Lionel Ragot & Xavier Chojnicki, 2018. "The fiscal impact of 30 years of immigration in France: an accounting approach," Working Papers hal-04141694, HAL.
    16. Ethan Ilzetzki, 2016. "Review Of "Migration And The Welfare State: Why Is America Different From Europe?" By Assaf Razin And Efraim Sadka," Israel Economic Review, Bank of Israel, vol. 14(1), pages 133-137.
    17. Anthony Edo & Lionel Ragot & Hillel Rapoport & Sulin Sardoschau & Andreas Steinmayr, 2018. "The Effects of Immigration in Developed Countries: Insights from Recent Economic Research," CEPII Policy Brief 2018-22, CEPII research center.
    18. Frattini, Tommaso & Meschi, Elena, 2019. "The effect of immigrant peers in vocational schools," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-22.
    19. Anthony Edo & Lionel Ragot & Hillel Rapoport & Sulin Sardoschau & Andreas Steinmayr & Arthur Sweetman, 2020. "An introduction to the economics of immigration in OECD countries," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(4), pages 1365-1403, November.
    20. Juan Luis Manfredi-Sánchez, 2020. "Sanctuary Cities: What Global Migration Means for Local Governments," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-16, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:4:p:211-:d:1115790. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.