For Me, For Money, For My Family: A Case Study of the Drivers of Migration Aspirations and Capabilities of Health-Allied Students

Abstract

The Philippines has long suffered from the brain drain of its healthcare professionals now further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the global shortage in healthcare professionals. To address this, the Philippine government has enacted and proposed various legislation to restrict healthcare worker migration such as deployment caps, return service agreements in schools, and the mandatory medical service bill. However, these measures have proven ineffective thus far and failed to address the problem of healthcare worker migration at its roots. Given these policies, it becomes imperative to include students, as stakeholders and future healthcare professionals, as part of the conversation in addressing brain drain. This paper aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the migration aspirations and capabilities of health-allied students, their perceptions of migration-restrictive measures such as those mentioned above, and provide policy recommendations towards encouraging healthcare worker retention. This was achieved by collecting data from three key informants and the conduct of four focus group discussions and three interviews of health-allied students from three universities in NCR and CALABARZON. The results of the data collection yielded four emergent themes: (1) Migration as a catalyst for perceived socioeconomic growth, (2) the problems of Philippine underdevelopment, (3) the family as the deciding factor, and (4) restriction as a band-aid solution to systemic issues. From here, the study was able to provide recommendations towards better-informed policy for healthcare worker retention that would contribute towards the achievement of SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth in the field of health.