Filipino Migrant and Returnee Nurses Resisting and Adapting to the Pressures of Becoming “Ideal Migrants”

Georgia Spiliopoulos () and Sondra Cuban
Additional contact information
Georgia Spiliopoulos: University of Leicester, George Davies Centre
Sondra Cuban: Woodring College of Education, Western Washington University

Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2025, vol. 26, issue 3, No 8, 1435-1460

Abstract: Abstract This paper scrutinizes the desirability and feasibility of return migration for Filipino male and female nurses, while considering “turning points”, factors such as natural disasters, here supertyphoon “Yolanda” or “Haiyan”, and/or family crises and changes in the family structure, which affect the migration trajectory. The Philippines has a long history of outward migration, more recently of female workers employed in the healthcare and domestic sectors: this longstanding phenomenon being encouraged by a “sophisticated infrastructure” which expects surplus workers to become “ideal migrants” — that is, compliant and aspirational. We take an intersectionality approach, considering gender, race, ethnicity, and other social divisions which place migrant and returnee nurses in (dis)advantageous positions, in order to explore the nurses’ own strategies of resistance and adaptation towards becoming “ideal” workers and sustaining the “ideal migrant” trajectory of upward social mobility. While the participants of this study had varied reactions towards the feasibility of permanent return, this paper offers policy recommendations on supporting the reintegration of returnee migrant nurses, providing a more nuanced understanding of circular and return nurse migration, and that of nurses’ negotiations and agency towards navigating their own and others’ expectations of being “ideal” migrants.

Keywords: Migrant nurses; Return migration; Turning points; Natural disaster; Philippines; Ideal migrant; Resistance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12134-024-01225-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:joimai:v:26:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s12134-024-01225-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... tudies/journal/12134

DOI: 10.1007/s12134-024-01225-x

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Migration and Integration is currently edited by Lori Wilkinson

More articles in Journal of International Migration and Integration from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().