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CHAIRPERSON

Dr Chand Somaiah, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

In this paper I use the case of nursing to highlight four key areas of importance in the emerging contours of occupational (im)mobility in the global care economy. First, the interlocking dimensions of care chain analysis demands a focus on occupationally specific hierarchies. Second, migration is central to care chains, but this demands geographical sensitivity to how regional labour markets articulate with the global organisation of specific occupations such as nursing. Third, the interlocking nature of care chains demands an understanding of institutional geographies of education and professional regulation. Forth, the gendered structures of labour markets mark different modes of engagement with certain types of female migration, and reflect nationally or regionally differentiated tendencies in gender relations. This analysis highlights the gendered and racialized intersections of spatial mobility and occupational immobility that take place in the nursing profession across a number of scales.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Margaret Walton-Roberts is a Professor in the Geography and Environmental Studies Department at Wilfrid Laurier University, and affiliated to the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo Ontario. Her research interests are in gender and migration, transnational networks in the Indian diaspora, and immigrant settlement in Canada. Her current research project focuses on the international migration of health care professionals in the context of economic regionalisation, and Mutual Recognition Agreements within ASEAN. She has been awarded several external grants for her research, and has published 3 co-edited books, over 18 book chapters, and more than 20 journal articles on immigration and citizenship policy, settlement and integration and transnational community formation. From 2008-2012 Dr Walton-Roberts was the inaugural Director of the International Migration Research Centre (IMRC); a research centre whose mandate is to serve as a focal point for debate, research, policy analysis, and proposal development related to international migration and mobility at the global, national and regional scale.

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