Seminar with Dr Radha Adhikari, University of West Scotland

International recruitment/ migration of nurses from the Global South by the countries in the Global North: a manufactured migration trap

Human mobility is a natural phenomenon and also a politically contested topic in recent decades. Current migration/immigration policies in rich nations are set to perpetuate disadvantage. Migration and mobility are a luxury for the privileged group and a compulsion/ survival strategy for the disadvantaged group. When privileged people move for jobs/ or any other business, it is seen as their right to mobility, but at the same time, for the less-privileged group, their mobility is restricted, and ethical questions are raised.

Based on the researcher’s ongoing research engagement on international nurse recruitment and migration to the UK, this paper looks at how the system creates dream- trap/ or migration trap for migrants. Despite their experience of discrimination, racism, and career stagnation in the Health and Social Care system, they are determined to settle in the UK.

About the Speaker:

Radha Adhikari is a Lecturer in the School of Health in Life Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland. She teaches in BSc Nursing, an international programme, and works on global health and nursing, international nurse migration, gender, and workforce management, and global health equity. She has extensive experience in nursing education, research, and clinical practice in the UK, Nepal, Malawi, Uganda and Japan.

Adhikari has published on international nurse migration and nursing workforce management. A few key publications include, I am a Nurse Not a Hero: A memory book of those frontline nurses who served during the first wave of the COVID-19 in London (2025), Books Himalaya Pvt. Ltd. Nepal, Nurse migration in Asia: Emerging Patterns and Policy Responses edited volume (2023), Routledge and Migrant health professionals and the global labour market: The dreams and traps of Nepali nurses, monograph, (2022) Routledge. Further information is available at: https://research-portal.uws.ac.uk/en/persons/radha-adhikari