The article focuses on Caribbean women who traveled to Great Britain after World War II to train as state-registered nurses and then migrated to Canada. The author provides brief biographical information about the interviewees featured in the paper, compares their recollections with the predominant images and ideas of Black women in Great Britain during that time, and discusses the women's reactions to nursing in Canada. She also explores the interviewees' revelations about their occupation, involvement in organisations that represented their interest, and the lessons they wish to pass on to future generations.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
301 p, The Family as the Agent of Socialization -- "I wouldn't be where I am today." Creating Moral Citizens through Church and School -- The Sky is the Limit: Migration to Britain -- Nurse Training and Education -- 'I've always wanted to work': Black Women and Professionalism -- Combining Work, Family and Community -- Nation Home and Belonging.; "Moving Beyond Borders is the first book-length history of Black health care workers in Canada, delving into the experiences of thirty-five postwar-era nurses who were born in Canada or who immigrated from the Caribbean either through Britain or directly to Canada. Karen Flynn examines the shaping of these women's stories from their childhoods through to their roles as professionals and community activists. Flynn interweaves oral histories with archival sources to show how these women's lives were shaped by their experiences of migration, professional training, and family life. Theoretical analyses from post colonial, gender, and diasporic Black Studies serve to highlight the multiple subjectivities operating within these women's lives. By presenting a collective biography of identity formation, Moving Beyond Borders reveals the extraordinary complexity of Black women's history."--pub. desc.
This paper focuses primarily on the challenges of nurse migration, although it makes reference to the crisis in education as it argues that the two are inter-connected. Also, while it acknowledges the problem as a regional one and speaks to this, its focus is on Jamaica, especially in assessing the feasibility of a 'training for export model.' It draws primarily on secondary literature, supported by interviews.
