Ethnic clustering among South Asian geriatricians in the UK: an oral history study

Raghuram, Parvati; Bornat, Joanna and Henry, Leroi (2009). Ethnic clustering among South Asian geriatricians in the UK: an oral history study. Diversity in Health and Care, 6(4) pp. 287–296.

URL: http://www.radcliffe-oxford.com/journals/J18_Diver...

Abstract

The literature on ethnic occupational clustering and its impacts is large. However, it mainly focuses on the less skilled sectors of the labour market or on entrepreneurship. In parallel, the extensive literature on employment of skilled migrants has focused on expanding diversity in the workforce, and on issues of representation of migrants and minorities. This article takes a fresh look at skill, ethnicity and migration, recognising the clustering that also occurs in parts of the skilled sectors of the labour market. Using the example of South Asian doctors in a poorly valued specialty, namely geriatrics (now more often known as old age medicine), the article suggests that over-representation and clustering can be processes for career advancement among health professionals. Drawing on oral history interviews conducted with geriatricians trained in South Asia, and drawing on an earlier collection of interviews with UK-born and trained pioneers of geriatrics, the article explores the experience of clustering, especially as it occurred from the late 1960s through to the 1980s, a period when there was rapid growth both in the discipline and in the numbers of overseas-trained doctors in the specialty. The article demonstrates how the double experience of marginality, as members of a minority ethnic group and as doctors working in geriatric medicine, created a professional niche with opportunities for career development. It concludes by suggesting that dependence on migrant workers and a lack of regard for the care and cure of older people continue to be important challenges for the health and social care sectors, and that a look at past experiences can alert us to the problems and prospects that clustering affords the workforce in these sectors today.

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About

• Item ORO ID
• 19810
• Item Type
• Journal Item
• ISSN
• 1743-4904
• Project Funding Details

• Funded Project Name	Project ID	Funding Body
  Not Set	RES-062-23-0514	ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council)

• Extra Information
• This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Diversity in Health and Care following peer review. The definitive version (as cited above) is available online at www.ingentaconnect.com.
  
  Related articles arising from the same research grant:
  
  Bornat, Joanna; Henry, Leroi and Raghuram, Parvati (2009). 'Don't mix race with the specialty': interviewing South Asian overseas-trained geriatricians'. Oral History, 37(1), pp. 74–84.
  
  Raghuram, Parvati; Henry, Leroi and Bornat, Joanna (2010). Difference and distinction? Non-migrant and migrant networks. Sociology (In Press).
  
• Keywords
• clustering; ethnicity; geriatrics; oral history; overseas trained doctors
• Academic Unit or School
• Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) > Social Sciences and Global Studies > Geography
  Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) > Social Sciences and Global Studies
  Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)
  Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) > Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport > Education
  Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) > Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport
  Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS)
  Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) > Health, Wellbeing and Social Care
• Research Group
• OpenSpace Research Centre (OSRC)
• Copyright Holders
• © 2009 Radcliffe Publishing
• Related URLs
• • http://oro.open.ac.uk/15495(Publication)
  • http://oro.open.ac.uk/19815(Publication)
• Depositing User
• Parvati Raghuram