African Medical Migration: Nigerian Doctors in the USA between Conflicting Priorities of Moral, Economic and Professional Commitment

来自撒哈拉以南非洲的医生国际移民在过去几十年里显着增加。尼日利亚大学一批毕业生中有40%是在医学院毕业十年后移民的。美国是最受非洲以南非洲医生青睐的目的地国家。到目前为止，仅从经济和政治学的角度对医疗移民与“人才外流”这一关键词进行了分析。侧重于医生自身的经历和更广泛的生活背景的实证研究仍然缺乏。该项目将在非洲医生移民研究现状的基础上，密切关注以下领域的研究：1)技术移民；2)非洲生物医学；3)跨国网络。它将从主旋律的角度探讨尼日利亚医生在美国的移民经历。将确定移民的个人、社会和文化诱因，并分析将医疗移民纳入跨地区、专业、地域族裔和基于家庭或宗教网络的情况。作为一名医生的自我概念，以及这种自我概念可能如何通过移民的影响以及与(可能)不同的医疗系统和职业道德准则的遭遇而改变，也将是重点。深入描述非洲医疗移民如何在全球化的生物医学格局中找到自己的位置，以及跨国网络对医生原籍国的归属感、流动性和道德责任的动态影响，将使人们能够对非洲医疗移民建立一个比定量研究所能提供的更全面的图景。

The international migration of medical doctors from sub-Saharan Africa has increased remarkably over the last decades. 40 % of all graduates from one cohort of the University of Nigeria have migrated ten years after having finished medical school. The USA present the most favored destination country for medical doctors from sub-African Africa. So far, an analysis of the medical migration in connection with the keyword “brain drain” has been conducted only from an economic and political science perspective. Empirical studies focusing on the experiences and wider life contexts of the medical doctors themselves have remained absent. This project is going to build upon the current state of research on the migration of African medical doctors by paying close attention to the research areas of: 1) skilled migration, 2) biomedicine in and from Africa and 3) transnational networks. It will explore from an emic perspective the migration experiences of Nigerian medical doctors in the USA. Individual, social and cultural incentives to migrate will be identified and the inclusion of the medical migrants in translocal, professional, geo-ethnic and family-based or religious networks analyzed. The self-conception of being a medical doctor and how this may change through the influences of migration and the encounter with (potentially) different medical systems and professional and ethical codes will also be in focus. A thick description of how African medical migrants locate themselves in a globalizing biomedical landscape and what kind of influence transnational networks have on the dynamics of belonging, mobility and moral responsibility towards the medical doctors¿ country of origin will enable the establishment of a more comprehensive picture of the African Medical Migration than quantitative studies have been able to deliver.