These structural forces are reconstructed historically, beginning circa 1950, through the instances of the United States of America, Canada, and the Philippines – the first countries in the world to begin using and producing temporary migrant nurses. The worldwide dismantling of trade unions, from the early 1980s, is linked to increased employer demand for temporary migrant nursing labour in countries of the global North – a theoretical link not typically made in studies of labour migration.

Given that markets for nursing and domestic labour were among the first to shift from functioning on a national scale, to integration on a global scale, it is further argued that world stratified production and distribution of caring labour is a new form of unequal exchange and budding trend in the restructuring of world capitalism.

This study of nurse migration is unique in its use of the world historical approach, as exemplified by the work of Giovanni Arrighi, Samir Amin, and Saskia Sassen. In this study, the world historical approach allows for a large-scale mapping and analysis of seemingly unrelated national processes underlying international nurse migration of the late twentieth century. This departs from the descriptive format of most studies of health labour migration which focus on the specifics of individual countries of origin or destination.

Additionally, it is the only study of international health migration which locates temporary labour migration within the long time frame of historical capitalism, characterized by North-South violence, coercion, and uneven development. Finally, together with world historical analysis, this study employs tools of socialist feminist political economy and Marxian economics.

To date the subject of late twentieth century nursing labour migration has not been broached by Marxian, socialist feminist, or world systems analysts. Given growing international policy discussions around the global nurse shortage, brain drain, rising global inequality, and the role of remittances in development, a critical analysis of nursing labour migration is timely and needed.

As Samir Amin states in the foreword of the book, “The ability to combine several elements, time frames, and layers of analysis is surely not unrelated to Salimah Valiani’s multiple vocations as multidisciplinary academic researcher, trade union based policy analyst, and advocate.” With over a decade of experience working in the international economic justice and trade union movements, Valiani’s study comes from a unique perspective combining academic research methods with policy questions and ‘insider insight.’