Among countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), France is one of the few where the proportion of immigrant doctors is actually decreasing.

In political debates, the benefits of immigration are often illustrated through the lens of medical migration. Politicians on the left and healthcare unions frequently cite hospitals that function largely thanks to the commitment of immigrant doctors and nurses, many trained outside Europe, including the well-known PADHUE (praticiens à diplôme hors Union européenne, or physicians with non-EU medical degrees). Faced with an aging population that increases healthcare needs while shrinking the available workforce, France, like many developed nations, has turned to foreign-trained physicians to fill the gap.

According to a report released recently by the OECD, which represents the world’s wealthiest nations (including North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia), there were more than 600,000 immigrant doctors (18% of all physicians) and 733,000 immigrant nurses (8%) working across OECD countries in 2023. Between 2001 and 2021, the number of foreign-born doctors and nurses in OECD nations rose by 86% and 136%, respectively. The number of doctors and nurses trained abroad increased by 62% and 71% since 2010, outpacing the overall growth of the healthcare workforce, which rose by 38% for doctors and 25% for nurses during the same period.

38% of UK Doctors Trained Abroad

Several Western countries have seen sharp increases in foreign-born healthcare professionals in recent decades. In Finland, for example, the share of immigrant doctors has tripled, while the number of immigrant nurses has grown eightfold in 20 years. Germany has also tripled its proportion of immigrant doctors.

France, however, stands out as one of the few Western countries, alongside Portugal and Israel, where the share of immigrant doctors has declined. The OECD attributes this to the expansion of France’s numerus clausus (the cap on medical school admissions), which was significantly raised in the mid-2000s and fully abolished in 2020. This reform boosted the number of domestically trained physicians faster than the increase in foreign-born doctors.

Today, 18% of doctors and 6% of nurses in France are immigrants — figures close to the OECD average. France’s healthcare system therefore relies far less on immigration than countries such as Australia (54%), Ireland (49%), or the UK (41%), where more than 4 in 10 doctors are foreign-born.

When focusing on foreign-trained professionals, France again ranks below the OECD average: 13% of doctors and 3% of nurses practicing in France were educated abroad (compared with 20% and 9%, respectively, across OECD). By comparison, 38% of doctors working in the UK’s National Health Service completed their medical education overseas.

OECD Warns of Global ‘Brain Drain’

Across the OECD, India remains by far the largest source of migrant physicians, with nearly 100,000 Indian-born doctors practicing in member countries. Surprisingly, Germany ranks second, with around 31,000 doctors working abroad, followed by China, with about 30,000.

A dozen African and Caribbean nations now have medical emigration rates above 50%, meaning that more than half of their trained doctors and nurses work outside their home countries. For instance, 90% of nurses and 58% of doctors born in Jamaica currently practice abroad.

This ongoing “brain drain,” the OECD warns, is disproportionately harming some of the world’s poorest nations. “The main receiving countries should, however, maintain efforts to increase training and improve health workforce retention in order to reduce domestic shortages and maldistribution,” the organization urged in its report.

The OECD also highlighted the cascade effect of international healthcare migration that deepens inequities between nations: Switzerland recruits German doctors, Germany replaces them with Polish doctors, and Poland, in turn, recruits physicians from Africa and Asia.

At the same time, the organization called on Western countries to improve working and regulatory conditions for immigrant healthcare workers. “Recognition of qualifications and licensing remain major barriers to the skills-appropriate labor market integration of migrant health professionals,” the OECD noted.

The report commended several countries, including France, for simplifying the recognition process for foreign-trained physicians and expanding “bridging programs” that help them meet national standards. In May 2025, the French government further streamlined the process for regularizing non-European doctors already practicing in France, a move aimed at improving their professional integration and addressing the country’s ongoing healthcare workforce shortages.

This story was translated from JIM, part of the Medscape Professional Network.