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Recruiting Agencies: The Role of Recruitment Firms in Czech Healthcare Worker
Migration
Heidi Bludau
As European healthcare shortages increase, the new EU member states provide a larger labor
market on which to draw. Healthcare professionals are an especially in-demand population and
are heavily recruited to fill these labor shortages. Therefore, they provide an interesting case
through which to examine migration processes. I suggest that merely having the opportunity for
migration does not inspire many people to migrate. However, that when informed and offered
resources by recruitment firms, healthcare workers are more likely to leave their jobs and
homelands to work in foreign countries. At the same time, the recruiters are representing
migration as a benefit to not only the migrant herself but also to the larger national body. My
research examines the ways in which migration recruitment firms influence migration flows
while serving their own needs, the needs of their clients, as well as the needs of local social
policy. I additionally explore the specific strategies of women in healthcare migration. Since
November 2008, I have been in the Czech Republic collecting data for this project. In this paper
I will present the initial findings and analysis my fieldwork.
Key concepts that I will explore
include the agency of various actors in the project, as well as gendered implications for
healthcare migrants.
HE I DI
L.
B LUD AU
[email protected]
EDUCATION
2004Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Ph.D., Anthropology
present
M.A., Anthropology (May 2007)
1996-1998
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
M. Ed., Curriculum and Instruction
1991-1995
B. A., Anthropology
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Migration, Gender, Globalization, Postsocialism, Food, Identity, Nationalism, Citizenship and the State, Ethnicity
Central/Eastern Europe, Czech Republic, European Union
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Associate Faculty, Women’s Studies Program, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, IN.
 Instructor of Record - WOST 105: Introduction to Women’s Studies (Fall 2007)
Associate Instructor, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington IN.

ANTH E210: Human Diversity (with Dr. Shane Greene, Fall 2007)
Discussion Leader

ANTH E105: Culture and Society (with Dr. Emilio Moran, Fall 2006)
Discussion Leader
Associate Instructor, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington IN.

ANTH E260: Culture, Health and Illness (with Dr. Sarah D. Phillips, Spring 2007)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2008
Graduate Assistant, West European Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
2007
2006-2007
Associate Faculty, Women’s Studies Program, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, IN
Associate Instructor, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Graduate Assistant, Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, Indiana University, Bloomington
IN.
2004-2006
2002-2004
1996-2002
Assistant Director, Beyond the Classroom (BTC) Living & Learning Program, University of Maryland,
College Park, MD.
Interim Assistant Director (2001 – 2002), Academic Coordinator (1999 – 2001), Freshman Services
Coordinator (1997 – 1998), Graduate Assistant (1996 – 1997), Office of Honors Programs & Academic
Scholarships, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.
FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS
2008-2009
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Grant from the U.S. Department of
Education for dissertation research in the Czech Republic
2007
Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Student Conference Travel Grant
2006
Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Summer Research Feasibility Grant
2006
Russian and East European Institute, Indiana University, Student Pre-Dissertation Travel Grant
2005
Women in Science, Indiana University, Student Travel Grant
2005
Russian and East European Institute, Indiana University, Student Conference Travel Grant
2005
Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Student Conference Travel Grant
2005
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship for the Czech language, summer award
PUBLICATIONS
2009. The Good Dissident Švejk: An Exploration of Czech Morality and Cultural Survival. Kosmas 22.
2007. Nursing New Ambition in the Czech Republic. REEIfication 30(1):3.
PRESENTATIONS
2009
“Producing Migrant Nurses: How recruitment firms create successful migrants for the global market.”
Paper Presentation, What is Capitalism and What Comes Next?, Joint conference of the Slovak
Association of Social Anthropologists and Czech Association of Social Anthropology, September 21,
2009, Pezinok, Slovakia.
2008
“’Homemade is homemade’: Food and Gender in the Postsocialist Kitchen.” Paper Presentation, Central
States Anthropological Society 85th Annual Meeting, March 26-28, 2008, Indianapolis, Indiana.
2007
“Calling All Nurses: (Re)constructing gender through nurse recruitment in the Czech Republic.” Paper
Presentation, Life in Motion; Shifting Spaces, Transcending Times, Crossing Borders postgraduate
conference, June 28-30, 2007, Brno, Czech Republic.
2007
"Never Beans? How Texas Chili makes Texas real." Paper Presentation, Inventing Cuisines: Traditions
and identity in North American foodways panel, AGSA Student Research Symposium, February 16-17,
2007, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
2006
“Exploring the Situation of the Nursing Profession in the Czech Republic since 1989". Paper Presentation,
Modern History panel, Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), 2006 World Congress, 25 June
- 2 July 2006, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
2005
AWARDS
2008
2007
“Monuments of the Collective: Memory, Identity and Monuments in Post-Soviet East Europe.” Poster
Presentation, American Anthropological Association, 104th Annual Meeting, Nov. 30-Dec. 4, 2005,
Washington, DC.
Outstanding Associate Instructor Teaching Award, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University
Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences Josef Hasek Student Award for the paper “The Good
Dissident Švejk: An Exploration of Czech Morality and Cultural Survival.”
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
 Student Representative, SOYUZ (Post-Communist Cultural Studies Interest Group), 2006-2009
 Graduate Student Representative, Committee on the Status of Women, Association for the Advancement of Slavic
Studies (AAASS), 2005-2007

Conference planning committee, SOYUZ, 2005
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
 American Anthropological Association (AAA)
 SOYUZ (Post-Communist Cultural Studies Interest Group of the AAA)
 Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS)
 Association for Women in Slavic Studies (AWSS)
 Society for the Anthropology of Europe (SAE)
 National Association of Student Anthropologists (NASA)
 Central States Anthropological Society (CSAS)
 Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU)