Hande Güzel is a sociologist researching gender, sexuality, health and illness, “race” and racism, and migration with a regional focus on the Middle East. She completed her PhD at the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge, with a thesis titled “Becoming-Virgin: Re-Virginisation Practices in Turkey,” where she explored women’s experiences of undergoing medical and non-medical methods of passing as a “technical” virgin. She holds an MA in Comparative Studies in History and Society from Koç University and a BA (High Hons) in Political Science and International Relations from Boğaziçi University.

Hande is currently a data analyst and research consultant to the End Everyday Racism project at the University of Cambridge. She previously worked as a Teaching Associate at the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge, was a Visiting Fellow at the Migration Research Center at Koç University, and a PhD fellow within the Human, Medicine, and Society research cluster at Orient-Institut Istanbul.

Her most recent research project, titled “Migration and Medicine: Bridging the Gap between Patients and Migrant Doctors,” funded by the British Institute at Ankara, explored the experiences of immigrant doctors in Turkey, their living and working conditions, and the relationship between patient and immigrant doctors.

From Turkey to Germany: The Immigration Experience of Medical Doctors

The last decade has seen a 44-fold increase in the number of medical doctors requesting a certificate of good standing to emigrate from Turkey. Many of these doctors choose to relocate to a country in the European Union, with Germany being the chief destination due to its shortage of medical doctors. Growing violence against healthcare professionals, tensions between medical personnel and the government, the weight of the pandemic on the healthcare system, and the cost-of-living crisis in Turkey have all fed into this increase in the emigration of medical doctors from Turkey.

However, the immigration process and experience are far from uniform, and the resources and opportunities relating to them are unequally distributed. Within this context, rather than looking at the motivations behind doctors’ immigration, this project seeks to explore (i) the experience of the immigration process from an intersectional lens, (ii) the lines of solidarity formed among immigrants, and (iii) the dynamics of the medical immigration market. By unpacking the complexity and unevenness of this immigration experience, this project will impact policymakers both in Germany and in Turkey.