Filipino Migrant Nurses in the United States: An Analysis of Family Adjustments and Conflicts

Abstract

This is a qualitative study about cross cultural, as well as family conflicts that affect Filipino Nurse Migrants as they immigrate to the United States to work as nurses for different institutions. To report and document the conflict narrative of Filipino Migrant Nurses in the United States from the standpoint of the Nurses themselves. The ultimate goal of this project is to build a program of conflict prevention embedded in the recruitment of Nurses from the Philippines. 12 Migrant Families, 1 official of national organizations and 1 government official participated in the completion of this project between the dates of winter of 2004 to the summer of 2006. The narratives were heard and their personal, data audio recorded in the interviews. The interviews were then transcribed and the text analyzed. The focus of this analysis is the different conditions and experiences of the families and the specific, culture consonant ways in which a Filipino Migrant Nurse copes with a new environment. The study also concentrates on the different conditions and policies that prevail amidst shortage of nurses and the recruitment of nurses in the Philippines. Research suggests that the current recruitment process has led to worker overload amidst the nursing shortage and wage abuses as new recruits wait for their immigration documents. The study traces the historical and personal conditions that led Filipino Nurses to the choice of migration. This information is also triangulated between the different members of their partners and family members. The findings suggests that although various family conflicts are commonly experienced by migrant nurses as they move to the United States, there are very few institutions, private companies and hospitals addressing adjustment issues and related conflicts. In the midst of a nursing shortage, there are significantly more elements of migration than can be addressed by the current national security centered immigration approach. Institutional coordination and sensitivity to internal and external conditions from the different private and government agencies in both the Philippines and the United States is due. But before solutions are put forward, this study examines what adjustment issues Filipino nurses encounter as they have historically immigrated to the United States. Before any price can be put on their service, it would only be prudent to examine what price they pay in the process.