While Mexico City is still the major point of attraction for medical students and specialty medical doctors, other major cities and metropolitan areas follow as large migration pull factors. However, other health professionals such as nurses, have not followed these patterns as they usually work in the same state where they receive their professional education.

Professional migration between Mexico and the United States has historically been present within both countries. However, few studies have documented this migration by type of profession or occupation, besides that of non-professional agricultural migration. With respect to health professionals, migration of nurses has been scarcely documented (Arroyo-de Cordero & Jiménez-Sánchez, 2005). Moreover, migration of medical professionals from Mexico to other countries (U.S. and Europe mostly) has been defined as highly difficult or problematic due to regulatory terms and differences in skills and language barriers that make it difficult to practice elsewhere. For example, a news report stated that out of approximately 19,000 nurses that present exams each year looking for placement in their state hospitals, less than 100 are from Mexico (Nájar, n.d.).

In addition, given current anti-immigration policies in place in the U.S., the reduction in total number of formal work permit and visas (work-visa bans) as well as more restrictions to those issued (such as being required to pay for health care) could hinder the increase of migration of health professionals in the near future.

References:

Arroyo-de Cordero, G. & Jiménez-Sánchez, J. (2005). Repercusiones de la escasez versus migración de enfermeras como fenómeno global. Rev Enferm IMSS, 13(1), 33–40.

Nájar, A. (n.d.). Enfermeras: las mexicanas más cotizadas en EE.UU. BBC Mundo.