Quebec, the Canadian province, has announced it will stop recruiting nurses from most African countries to avoid exacerbating shortages in healthcare workers in their countries of origin. This move follows an initiative since 2022, where Quebec sourced over a thousand foreign-trained nurses to mitigate its own healthcare staffing shortfall. Like other Western nations, Quebec faces a workforce crisis as poor working conditions have driven nurses away, pushing the province to seek talent abroad. However, with mounting pressure from African nations concerned about their depleting nursing workforce, Quebec has decided to cease recruitment from nearly all African countries.
The province previously focused on francophone African nations like Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Morocco, given the shared French language and cultural ties. However, due to concerns from these countries about losing their own healthcare capacity, Quebec will only continue to recruit nurses from Tunisia and the Gulf region. Morocco’s ambassador to Canada, Souriya Otmani, called the decision “just and fair,” highlighting that the recruitment program was viewed as a “dead loss” for the country, especially given the costs of training nurses who would eventually leave to work abroad.
The broader issue of healthcare worker shortages is particularly acute in Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that 55 countries, 37 of which are African, face severe shortages of healthcare workers. The WHO has urged Western countries to support these fragile healthcare systems, rather than exacerbate the crisis by pulling trained staff away. For context, the ratio of nurses to the population is dire: Cameroon, for instance, has 1.9 nurses per 10,000 residents, while Quebec boasts nearly 100 nurses for the same number of people, according to the WHO.
While Quebec has been keen on addressing its own shortage of healthcare professionals, the province’s international recruitment strategy has faced criticism and challenges. Many nurses recruited to Quebec have experienced difficulties adapting to the Canadian healthcare system. Challenges include passing local exams and licensing requirements, leading many to be underemployed in lower-paying positions, often in care homes rather than hospitals. Moreover, cultural barriers and experiences of racism have further hindered these nurses’ integration and ability to work to their full potential in Quebec’s healthcare system.
Since 2017, Quebec’s recruitment efforts have spanned a wider geographic reach, bringing in over 1,900 healthcare workers, including nurses and midwives, from 24 countries across Africa, Latin America, and Europe. However, the recent focus has been primarily on francophone African countries, given the shared language and cultural compatibility. Yet, the long-term impact on these countries has prompted Quebec to reconsider its recruitment practices, shifting away from nations struggling with their own healthcare staffing issues.
The move to cease recruitment from most African countries has been viewed as a necessary step to balance Quebec’s need for healthcare professionals while being mindful of the critical workforce shortages in the countries it has previously recruited from. Despite these changes, the province continues to face a critical need for healthcare staff to address its own labor shortages and is now looking to Tunisia and the Gulf region as alternatives to fill these gaps.
The situation underscores a broader global issue: as Western countries face their own healthcare crises, they must navigate the ethical and practical challenges of recruiting healthcare professionals from regions where their absence can lead to dire consequences. For African nations, the loss of trained healthcare workers has significant implications for their ability to provide adequate care to their populations, making the balance between international recruitment and maintaining domestic healthcare capacity a challenging one.
Quebec’s decision reflects a growing awareness of the ethical implications of international healthcare recruitment and the need for sustainable, fair solutions to address global workforce challenges. It also highlights the need for Western countries to invest in their own healthcare training and retention strategies rather than relying on recruitment from countries with fragile health systems.
