Going beyond numbers: A typology of health professional mobility inside and outside the European Union

In a context of current and forecasted global health workforce shortages, attention around health professional mobility is mounting as observers and policy makers recognise its role in supplying health systems with the workforce they dependent on to function, or depleting these systems of their doctors and nurses. The paper proposes a typology of health professional mobility composed of six types of mobile health professionals and three types of borders. The framework draws attention to the individual's decision to migrate and to the role laws and borders play as determinants for mobility opportunities. In doing so, the typology is able to identify which types of mobile health professionals are likely to escape data collection, to highlight the distinction between free mobility within the EU and migration outside the EU's external borders, and to act as tool for designing policies adapted to the diversity of health professional mobility.