Events

CHAIRPERSON

Asst Prof Sahana Ghosh, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Studies on the migration of healthcare workers have mainly treated “skill” as a resource that individuals carry across borders, thus prompting ongoing comparisons between the poor countries that lose health workers to richer nations that recruit them. In this presentation, we examine skill as a construct that is integral to a migration infrastructure built around the assessment, evaluation, and certification of foreign professionals. Drawing on a pilot study of the experiences of Filipino nurses and doctors in Singapore, we illustrate how such infrastructures of skill determine not only healthcare workers’ entry into the country but their eventual exit and remigration. Rather than regard skill as a singular fixed quality, we find that Singapore employers, professional associations, and government agencies often have multiple and sometimes contradictory definitions of how to assess the capabilities of foreign health professionals. Given serious shortages in human resources for health in times of global health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, we argue for greater attention to Singapore’s infrastructures of skill so as to create equitable standards and progressive work cultures that are germane to a robust healthcare sector.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Yasmin Y. Ortiga is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Singapore Management University. She studies how the social construction of “skill” shapes people’s migration trajectories, changing institutions within both the countries that send migrants, as well as those that receive them. In 2019, she received the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. Her work has also been published in Global Networks, International Migration Review, and Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.