Nurses across borders: foregrounding international migration in nursing history

Although the international migration of nurses has played a formative role in increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of the health care labor force, nursing historians have paid very little attention to the theme of international migration and the experiences of foreign-trained nurses, A focus on international migration complements two new approaches in nursing history: the agenda to internationalize its frameworks, and the call to move away from "great women, great events" and toward the experiences of "ordinary" nurses. This article undertakes a close reading of the life and work of Filipino American nurse Ines Cayaban to reconceptualize nursing biography in an international framework that is attentive to issues of migration, race, gender, and colonialism. It was a Hannah keynote lecture delivered by the author on June 5, 2008, as part of the CAHN/ACHN (Canadian Association for the History of Nursing/Association Canadienne pour l'Histoire du Nursing) International Nursing History Conference.