Health worker migration in Europe: policy issues and options

James Buchan, December 2007

EU enlargement in recent years has raised concerns that health worker migration from accession countries to western Europe may increase, adversely affecting health system performance in other countries, particularly those that have joined the EU since 2004.

This raises important questions – what is the evidence that health workers are migrating, and is migration temporary or permanent? If health worker migration is an issue, what are the options for policy makers? And what are the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors and how can these be addressed?