The Net Benefit of Migration: The Case of Migrant Nurses from Ghana to the United Kingdom

Abstract

Skilled worker migration from Ghana to Europe and the USA has been on the increase in recent years. These out-migrations bring enormous benefits as well as costs but the net effect is yet to be ascertained. Using survey data from 100 nurses practising in Ghana and a similar number practising in the UK, this paper investigates their reasons for migrating and attempts to cap-ture the net benefit of migration. The paper concludes that migration of nurses brings positive net private benefit but this excludes social cost such as the rise in mortality rates due to shortage of nurses, and other social costs which do not easily lend themselves to valuation in monetary terms.