Migrant health workers increasingly plugging gaps in OECD workforce

Foreign-trained medics now take up more than a quarter of the roles in organisation's 38 states

English-speaking countries have among the highest shares of foreign-trained doctors in their workforces, reflecting continuing domestic shortages. Getty Images

The number of foreign-born doctors and nurses working in OECD countries has risen in the past two decades, highlighting the growing importance of migrant health workers, a report has found.

The report, titled “International Migration Outlook 2025", found that the largest increases were recorded in the US, Germany and the UK.

These three countries remain the primary destinations for foreign-born and foreign-trained doctors and nurses, together hosting the majority of migrant health professionals in the OECD, the report said.

“While migration cannot solve the challenges posed by ageing populations to the OECD labour markets, it can play a role in mitigating its impact,” wrote Stefano Scarpetta, director for employment, labour and social affairs at the OECD, an organisation of 38 countries, in the report.

“Despite continuous efforts to increase domestic training, the share of migrant doctors increased over the past two decades from 21 per cent to 28 per cent,” Mr Scarpetta said.

Overall, permanent migration declined by four per cent last year compared to the previous year but remained 15 per cent above 2019 levels. The main reason that people emigrate is for family reasons, which represented 44 per cent of total flows last year, with labour migration at 17 per cent and humanitarian at 13 per cent.

Asylum applications have reached record high levels, with 3.1 million new applications registered across OECD countries in 2024, up by 13 per cent relative to 2023. Top origin countries of applicants included Venezuela, Colombia and Syria.

Citizenship acquisition in OECD countries also reached historic highs in 2024, approaching three million. Germany granted citizenship to 290,000 foreign residents and the UK 270,000, a record for both countries.

Policies for healthcare workers

Healthcare workers increasingly benefit from specialised permits and visa categories to simplify complex qualification recognition and licensing procedures before they can practice.

While migration policies are changing in favour of international recruitment in the health sector, but receiving countries should “maintain efforts to increase training and improve health workforce retention in order to reduce domestic shortages and maldistribution”, the report said.

English-speaking countries have among the highest shares of foreign-trained doctors, reflecting domestic shortages, particularly in hospitals. Medical staff shortages have caused protests in countries like the UK amid a cost-of-living crisis. This reliance is particularly pronounced for example in the Republic of Ireland, where nearly 52 per cent of the nursing workforce in 2023 had trained abroad.

Medical staff shortages have caused protests in countries like the UK amid a cost-of-living crisis. Getty Images

Meanwhile, the number of foreign-born doctors more than tripled over the past two decades in several countries, including Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. Foreign-born nurse numbers in Finland increased almost eight-fold, while Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Norway also saw their numbers more than triple.

India, Germany and China are the main countries of origin for doctors, while the Philippines, India and Poland are the top three countries for nurses. Almost 40 per cent of migrant doctors in the OECD and 37 per cent of migrant nurses were born in an Asian country.

In addition to OECD high-income countries, the cluster of destination countries now includes the GCC – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. They have 50 per cent or higher foreign-born health personnel, according to the report.

In 2020-2021, there were more than 830,000 foreign-born doctors and 1.75 million foreign-born nurses working in the OECD, representing respectively about one-quarter and one-sixth of the workforce in each occupation.