The experiences and perspectives of overseas trained speech and language therapists working in the United Kingdom

Abstract

There is a growing body of research which has investigated the experience of the migrant health worker. However, only one of these studies has included speech and language therapists thus far, and then only with extremely small numbers. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences and perspectives of migrant speech and language therapists living in the UK. Twenty-three overseas qualified speech and language therapists living in the UK completed an online survey consisting of 36 questions (31 closed question, 5 open-ended questions). The majority of participants came from Australia or the USA and moved to the UK early in their careers. Participants reported a range of benefits from working in another country and more specifically working in the UK. The findings were consistent with other research on migrant health workers regarding known pull factors of travel, finance, and career. This study suggests additional advantages to working in the UK were realized once participants had started working in the UK, such as the UK job lifestyle. Finally, the migrant speech and language therapists were similar in profile to other migrant health workers in terms of age and country of origin previously reported in the literature.

Keywords:

• Immigration
• migrant
• speech and language therapy

Notes

1.Migrant defined as “those who reside in a country other than their birth for more than a year” (International Organization for Migration, 2000, p. 4).

2.All speech and language therapists practising in the UK are required to registered with the Health Professions Council.

3.Sure Start is a UK government program which aims to improve the health and emotional development of young children, particularly in disadvantaged areas. Child Centres that were set up as part of this programme run a number of initiatives that aim to improve and assess children's language skills.