Social ethics of the international recruitment of health professionals. A Christian social-ethical integration of global and national perspectives

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Bernhard Emunds; Professor Dr. Jonas Hagedorn; Professor Dr. Christof Mandry
• Subject Area: Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 549422108

The research project develops a comprehensive social-ethical framework for evaluating the international recruitment of health personnel (GFP). It addresses a research gap by elucidating the specific responsibilities of relevant actors at the macro level of international relations, the meso level of bilateral institutionalization of GFP recruitment, national regulatory frameworks, and the micro level of recruiting private actors, and by relating them to each other. It engages with debates on international frameworks for this recruitment, evaluates the ethical arguments put forth in a destination country (Germany) and a source country (Mexico) for GFP recruitment, and develops its own overarching and integrated socio-ethical framework with critical reference to these debates. Sub-project 1 (TP1) develops an ethical evaluation of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel from 2010 and relevant other international regimes, focusing primarily on human rights ethical positions and conceptions of social sustainability (especially Sustainable Development Goals). TP2 analyzes and evaluates the recruitment practices of non-state actors in Germany, their handling of recruited GFP, and the political conditions. Special attention is given to the recruitment practices of church actors and the ethical claims they themselves raise or that are brought to them by others. TP3 conducts an analysis and ethical evaluation of GFP recruitment in Mexico based on expert interviews. The focus is on bilateral agreements that prepare and enable GFP recruitment, the cooperation of the involved state and non-state actors, and the impact of GFP emigration on the public health system and care structures in Mexico. The results of the three sub-projects (three typologies of ethical problem descriptions) are integrated into an overarching socio-ethical framework. This consists, on the one hand, of criteria for shaping international GFP recruitment, which involves the development of normative standards with universal appeal (especially human rights, sustainability, gender equity), welfare ethical aspects (such as care security in the source and destination countries), and particular orientations of the good (manifested in existing institutional arrangements and affirmed practices). On the other hand, it concerns an ethically justified and politically plausible allocation of responsibility, which is to be concretized in a social-ethical orientation paper ("points to consider" for political decision-makers).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants