Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
1-2021
Abstract
Migration scholars have tended to portray internal mobility as a step toward broader cross-border movement, reinforcing the notion of ongoing progress toward international migration. This article argues for a need to recognize how internal mobility can also explain international immobility, or why people do not move across national borders. Using the case of Filipino nurses, we argue that while internal migration does allow aspiring migrants to build the potential ability to emigrate, individual trajectories are much more diverse and multi-directional, often prolonging or reinforcing their international immobility. As a result, and in our case study, the costs and burdens of constant internal movement can also alter nurses’ migration aspirations, prompting them to either alter their original goals or acquiesce to their inability to leave their origin countries. This article calls for migration scholarship to address not only a “mobility bias” within the field but also the over-focus on international migration, rather than internal mobility, as a subject of study.
Keywords
immobility, internal migration, nursing
Discipline
Asian Studies | Nursing | Work, Economy and Organizations
Research Areas
Sociology
Publication
International Migration Review
Volume
55
Issue
2
First Page
460
Last Page
481
ISSN
0197-9183
Identifier
10.1177/0197918320952042
Publisher
SAGE Publications (UK and US)
Citation
ORTIGA, Yasmin Y., & MACABASAG, Romeo Luis A..(2021). Understanding international immobility through internal migration: ‘Left behind’ nurses in the Philippines. International Migration Review, 55(2), 460-481.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3598
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1177/0197918320952042