The Migration of Turkish Health Professionals: Causes and Consequences

Soner Tauscher () and Yigit Cem Eskicioglu ()
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Soner Tauscher: Sakarya University, Department of International Relations, Center for Diaspora Studies
Yigit Cem Eskicioglu: Sakarya University, Department of International Relations, Center for Diaspora Studies

Chapter Chapter 3 in The Economics of Migration of Highly Skilled Workers from Türkiye, 2026, pp 61-95 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Brain-drain allows developed countries to enhance their competitiveness in science, technology, and healthcare by attracting highly skilled individuals. It has significant consequences for source countries, including economic losses, a weakened healthcare infrastructure, and long-term growth challenges. In the asymmetric framework that emerges, the migration of health professionals, in particular, leads to losses that profoundly affect the health system as well as economic costs in source countries. The mass migration process from Türkiye, which started primarily in the 1960s through Western countries and mainly involved unskilled labor, gained a new dimension after the 2000s with qualified individuals heading abroad. With the 2010s, there has been a noticeable increase in the desire of healthcare professionals to migrate abroad. Working conditions in Türkiye, limited professional opportunities, and more attractive professional environments abroad significantly affect this migration. Facing the brain-drain of health professionals, Türkiye is also shifting toward health tourism and developing repatriation policies to reverse the brain-drain trend in the healthcare sector. This study provides a detailed analysis of the push and pull factors driving the brain-drain in the healthcare sector in Türkiye, with a particular focus on the economic, social, and political reasons influencing healthcare professionals’ migration abroad.

Keywords: Brain-drain; International migration; Healthcare professionals; High-skilled migration from Türkiye (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-10606-3_3

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