Migration of health personnel in the WHO European Region (2009)

This report brings together available information on health workforce flows and discusses the limitations. It reviews the literature on the types of health workforce migration and on the factors associated with the decision to migrate and the choice of a destination.

It also distinguishes between the effects of migration on the health workers involved, on the health services and on recipient countries and identifies policy options that have been used to address problems with health workforce migration, examining in particular the adoption of codes of ethics for the recruitment of foreign health workers.