Discrimination on immigrant trainees

Abstract

Introduction

Migration and its effects in the life of skilled health workforce immigrants are a concern. However, the perceived challenges and advantages of being an immigrant trainee and their views on having access to local opportunities have not been studied so far. This can potentially play an important role in trainees’ future decisions to migrate.

Objectives

This work has focused in exploring the perceptions of immigrant psychiatry trainees in several European countries about feeling discriminated, the circumstances they felt discriminated and how this perception affected their future migratory plans.

Methods

A semi-structured questionnaire was circulated to psychiatry trainees in Europe between 2013 and 2014.

Results

More than one in ten trainees across Europe were immigrants already. Top host countries were UK, Switzerland and Sweden. Approximately one in twenty trainees across Europe had the perception of feeling discriminated or not having the same opportunities as the native trainees, especially concerning the work and academic conditions and the social and financial conditions. On the other hand, nearly one in ten trainees felt they had the same opportunities. The country with the highest level of satisfactionwas the UK and with the lowest was Ireland. Almost half of the psychiatry trainees who felt discriminated in their previous migratory experience want to migrate again.

Conclusions

A high number of immigrant psychiatry trainees feels that they do not have the same opportunities as local trainees and they are considering migrating again. Further research on feeling discriminated by immigrant workforce is necessary to clarify this differences.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.