Migrant Labour, Racism and the British National Health Service

Kyriakides, C. and Virdee, S. (2003) Migrant Labour, Racism and the British National Health Service. Ethnicity and Health, 8(4), pp. 283-305.

Abstract

This study explores the dynamics of racism, specifically its generation & reproduction as an ideology, & its role in affecting the reception & occupational location of migrant medical labor in GB. It is argued that the treatment of 'overseas doctors' in GB draws on a complex interplay between racism & nationalism underpinned by the historical construction of 'welfarism' as a moral legitimator of 'Britishness.' Through an exploration of internal & external immigration controls introduced with the aim of regulating migrant labor, we demonstrate how British social policy & elite discourses of 'race' combine to construct moral prescriptions of threat such that migrants & British-born 'non-whites' entering the British medical profession are forced to negotiate 'savior/pariah' ascriptions indicative of discriminatory but contradictory processes specific to the operation of the British National Health Service as a normative institution.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Dominant Ideologies, Foreign Workers, Immigration Policy, Labor Migration, Physicians, Racism, United Kingdom, Identity, Scotland
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Virdee, Professor Satnam
• Authors: Kyriakides, C., and Virdee, S.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: Ethnicity and Health
• ISSN: 1355-7858