Women, Work and Migration: Nursing in Australia

This book looks at the migration and work experiences of six women who have migrated to Australia from China; Zimbabwe; South Korea; the United Kingdom; India and the Philippines. It sets their journeys out into three distinct periods of migration, including the first period of their lives when they reflect on their experiences growing up with their immediate families and the factors that encouraged them to gravitate towards a nursing career. The second period covers time when each of these women begin to think about where their career in nursing might taken them. During this phase, these women take their first steps to leave their home country and migrate to Australia, often after several countries in between. The final section allows the reader to understand how these women initially experienced Australia when they first arrived and how they faced challenges both personally and professionally after arrival in their new place to call home.

The discussions within these three sections cover both professional and personal/familial reflections, where differences in nursing identity between sending and destination country is discussed alongside the adjustments that the women needed to make to overcome loneliness and to successfully integrate into new organizational environments. Each chapter analyses migration as a life course, which considers why nurses leave their home country and find a new place to call home. Furthermore, if they find themselves thinking about returning to their country of birth; how or if they maintain transnational links, and how identity and ethnicity shape these responses.

These life trajectories are underscored by an historical context setting of nursing migration to Australia in the opening chapter offering unique insights into the changing process of migration, accreditation, registration and settlement of nurses in Australia. The book will be of value to researchers, academics, and students interested in gender studies, career and migration, health and nursing, and international HRM.