[Can nursing staff from abroad meet the growing demand for care? Analysis of labor migration in nursing professions in 2010].

Owing to demographic changes, there will probably not be enough nursing staff available in the future to cover the continually increasing demand for long-term care. Among other things, labor migration is seen as a means to meet shortages in care staff. This report analyzes to what extent migrant workers meet the need for nursing staff today, what the structure of their qualifications is, and from which countries they come. The results show that migrant workers in nursing professions mainly come from the eastern EU countries and the former Soviet Union. The percentage of nursing staff with a minimum qualification of 1 year of long-term care training is significantly lower in the group of migrant workers than in the group of nonmigrant workers. Given the decline of new migrant workers in nursing professions in the past decade, labor migration contributes only to a small extent toward closing this gap in the long term. In view of the increase in training rates and labor participation, it is to be regarded rather as a temporary solution.