Health care professionals
The World Health Report 2006 states:
- That there is a direct link between positive health outcomes and the density of professional health care workers.
- That there is difficulty in reaching targets where health systems are experiencing critical staff shortages.
- That the countries that are having the greatest difficulty in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are faced with absolute shortfalls in their health workforce, seriously limiting their potential to respond to even basic health needs.
The international recruitment and migration of health professionals affecting national workforce supply is now a significant item on the political agenda

- Nursing increasingly can be characterized as a mobile profession.
- Thousands of nurses migrate each year in search of:
- Better pay and working conditions
- Career mobility
- Professional development
- A better quality of life
- Personal safety
- Novelty and adventure
It is estimated that 30,000 nurses and midwives educated in sub-Saharan Africa are now employed in seven OECD (= Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.

Barriers to migrate
- The process of requalification
- The cost of a physical transfer
- Adapting to different clinical practices
- Time-consuming/costly immigration procedures
- The need to learn a new language (or technical terminology)
Language used to restrict the choice of destination counrty (Moroccan nurses to France,etc). Nowadays, this is not the case anymore.