The effects of the Philippines bilateral arrangements with selected countries

Nowadays, there is a shortage as well as inequitable distribution of health professionals in many countries, which together with the increasing demand on healthcare workers due to demographic changes intensifies the need for healthcare workers globally. In 2006, the World Health Organization estimated that there was a shortage of more than 4.3 million health personnel across the world and 57 countries (mainly Sub-Saharan and South-East Asian) suffered from critical shortages (WHO, 2006). On the other hand, the increasing demand on healthcare professionals due to the aging of the societies is identified in many developed countries and pushes them to international recruitment of healthcare workers. Unmanaged international recruitment of healthcare workers could have negative consequences for the sending countries, known as brain drain effect, and for the migrants themselves following the lack of sufficient protection of their human and employment rights. Brain drain in case of outflow of healthcare professionals means that the sending country is not only losing its ‘best and brightest’ what could have negative welfare implications (Bhagwati & Hamada, 1974), but also the outflow of healthcare professionals could endanger the ‘right to health’ of the remaining population (Plotnikova, 2012).