Nurse migration is both a necessity and a risk, says TruMerit. Australia is facing a lot more competition for those nurses.
Australia may be facing a tougher fight to attract overseas nurses, with new global data pointing to shifting migration patterns and intensifying competition for a finite workforce pool.
A new international report from workforce body TruMerit suggested the long-standing flow of nurses toward traditional destinations is beginning to fragment, as demand rises across multiple regions.
While the US and UK remain key destinations, the report found an “increasing share of internationally educated nurses are finding work in Europe … and southeast Asia”, signalling a shift away from established migration pathways.
That trend is playing out against a backdrop of persistent global shortages.
“The global nursing shortage is 5.8 million,” the report noted, with distribution heavily skewed.
“Seventy-eight percent of the world’s nurses are found in countries representing less than half of the world’s population.”
For countries like Australia, which rely heavily on internationally educated nurses to plug workforce gaps, the implications are clear: the pool is not only limited but is also becoming increasingly contested.
Migration has become a central mechanism for balancing that mismatch, but it is a solution that brings risks as well as benefits.
“If not properly managed, international migration of health workers at scale can … exacerbate existing workforce shortages in low-resource contexts,” the report warned.
At the same time, it acknowledged migration remained an essential part of the global workforce response, with “approximately one in seven nurses” now working outside their country of training.
The result is a system where high-income countries are competing more directly, not just with each other, but with emerging destinations that are becoming increasingly attractive to mobile workers.
“Professional migration has emerged as one means of addressing local health workforce shortages, particularly in high income countries,” the report said, driven by higher wages, improved working conditions, and career opportunities.
But that competition is no longer static.
Recent geopolitical and policy shifts are already disrupting flows, with the report pointing to changing immigration settings and demand dynamics as key drivers of where nurses ultimately land.
“Transnational mobility is easily disrupted by immigration policies,” it noted, with nurses often rerouting through alternative destinations when access to preferred countries tightened.
That fluidity may make it harder for countries like Australia to rely on predictable supply pipelines.
Related
Beyond the numbers, the report also highlighted ongoing challenges in how migrant nurses are integrated into destination systems, an issue that has been well documented in Australia.
Internationally educated nurses frequently faced “a lack of professional support, language and communication difficulties … discrimination, and lack of cultural integration and feelings of belonging”, the report said.
There was also evidence that some were unable to work to their full scope of practice, with “working below their educational level” cited as a common experience.
These factors, combined with growing global demand, may further complicate recruitment and retention efforts.
The report stopped short of singling out individual countries, but its policy recommendations aligned closely with challenges facing Australia’s health system.
Among them are calls to improve recognition of qualifications across borders, strengthen ethical recruitment frameworks, and invest in better workforce data.
It also pushed for more coordinated global action, arguing that the absence of a dedicated international forum was limiting progress.
“There is no permanent global, multilateral forum dedicated to this issue,” the report noted, despite the increasingly transnational nature of health workforce challenges.
Ultimately, the report framed nurse migration as both a necessity and a risk.
It was “a challenge because … it can exacerbate inequitable distribution,” but also “an opportunity” to support workforce development and address shortages.