In total, the health systems of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) house more than 830,000 doctors and 1.75 million foreign-born nursessays the annual report “International Migration Perspectives 2025”.
One in five doctors and nurses working in the health systems of the 38 OECD member countries, such as Portugal, is a migrant, according to a report released this Monday by the organization.
The numbers confirm the situation in 2020-2021, the last time that values in the health area were recorded, but OECD analysts – who worked together with the World Health Organization (WHO) on this matter in the report – guarantee that the Integration of migrant doctors and nurses has grown significantly over the past two decades, outpacing overall employment growth in these professions.
This situation is due to the shortage of healthcare professionals in countries with aging populations
“The total number of foreign-born doctors increased by 86% and that of nurses by 136%”advance. The situation is due to the shortage of health professionals in countries with aging populations and an increasing need for medical care, analysts point out in the document on migration.
“In response, many OECD countries have strengthened their capacity to train healthcare personnel, but international recruitment of doctors and nurses has also continued to increase,” they say.
The biggest increases in absolute numbers of migrant healthcare professionals were recorded in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, analysts found. The number of foreign-born doctors has more than tripled over the past two decades in several countries, including Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain and Switzerland.
In the case of foreign-born nurses, Finland was the country that recorded the biggest increase, with an increase of almost eight times, while Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Norway also saw the number more than triple.
Most migrant healthcare professionals are from Asia
The report also points out that the majority of migrant health professionals come from Asia, where approximately 40% of foreign doctors and 37% of foreign nurses working in the OECD come from. India, Germany and China are the main countries of origin for doctors, while the Philippines, India and Poland are the three main countries of origin for nurses.
“Seven countries of origin have more doctors working in the OECD than in their own countries, and this number rises to 15 countries in the case of nurses”, refers to the document, explaining that, for the most part, they come from small island states and less developed countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Although migration policies are evolving, especially due to the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there is still a need to increase political responses, according to OECD analysts.
“Recognition and licensing”which “there remain major obstacles to the integration of migrant health professionals into the labor market”, they must be improved, they argue.
The OECD also proposes that the main recipient countries reinforce “training and improving retention of healthcare professionals in order to reduce shortages and poor distribution internally”.
Created in 1961 to manage Marshall Plan aid after the Second World War, the OECD currently aims to promote democracy and the market economy and its members, in addition to Portugal, Germany, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, South Korea, Costa Rica, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the United States, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.
