Exploring the interplay between Pay, Career barriers and Management support: an intersectional study of migrant doctors

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) relies heavily on migrant labor to deliver essential services. While evidence indicates that overseas doctors have less positive career outcomes that may result in pay gaps in comparison to their U.K.-trained counterparts, extant theoretical explanations have been slow to consider the crucial role of workplace practices and the degree to which pay gaps differ between multiple identity sub-groups. Adopting an intercategorical approach to analyze statistical survey data from 5,753 NHS doctors, we examine how pay gaps stem from career barriers and management support in male and female international medical graduate, European Economic Area, and U.K. doctors. Our findings provide insights into intersectional variations in career barriers and pay gaps for skilled medical migrants which point to penalties for migrants, especially migrant ethnicized women. Based on our findings, we extend theoretical explanations of pay gaps by conceptualizing themas a complex multi-layered concept that embraces workplace practices as well as intersecting demographic identities. We also contribute to theory on skilled migration by highlighting the counterintuitive shape of management support on migrants’ careers and by diversifying extant understandings of constraint and enablement in migrant careers.