The emigration of doctors is an important policy question concerning everybody, which is well-connected to the anomaly of the health care’s general situation in the academic discourse – the problem of doctor shortage. The doctor migration is not new and not a Hungarian phenomenon. The continuously growing tasks and possibilities of health care, and the demographic trends generate increasing demand for doctors, resulting in an increasing migration of doctors. The measuring of the doctor migration’s phenomenon seems easy, but instead of using ambiguous data usually the migration intentions are being measured – which is easier to ask, than examining the actual process. 

 

We used experimental sampling for gathering data among doctors currently working abroad. Using our research’s new data collection we examined the explanatory factors and the extent of doctor emigration, considering the effects that incite and retain migration in the case of Hungarian doctors, who work abroad or already had migration experience. In the first part of the lecture we will introduce our network related sampling technique and the related problems emerged. In the second part, we are summarizing the results of our research especially the factors that influence the doctors’ work abroad and their related expectations. Using statistical models we examined how the life- and working conditions affect the odds of working abroad and the emerging patterns.