4. METHODOLOGY
4.4 Instruments
The survey used in this study was largely based on the national and international instrument used by the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) which was published in McDonald and Crush (2002b). Dr Jonathan Crush, who was the director of SAMP, was contacted in order to request permission to use portions of the SAMP survey for the study. Dr Crush granted permission to use the original measure (see Appendix D); however, the survey had to be modified and shortened for two reasons.
Firstly, the original SAMP instrument was used for a sample of „skilled‟ South Africans, which is a somewhat broad category which includes “anyone who has special training or work experience which is in relative short supply in relation to the labour market as a whole”
(McDonald & Crush, 2002a, p. 7). Therefore, some questions had to be modified and some new questions introduced in order to specifically address the health professional sample.
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Secondly, the original SAMP survey used for skilled South Africans included 213 items, which was considered to be fairly lengthy for the purposes of this study. Thus only questions that seemed theoretically applicable were included in the final instrument, guided by a review of the relevant literature.
The final instrument (see Appendix E) was comprised of 71 items which were divided into 7 sections. The majority of the questions were 5-point Likert scale items, reversing some of the scores in order to diminish the extent of response bias, as suggested by DeVellis (2003).
There were also a few free-response items in order to allow for a more qualitatively varied response. The sections of the survey will now briefly be discussed.
The „Demographics‟ section (10 items) focused on issues around gender, race, age,
employment sector, language, marital status, province in which the participant works, and the university from which the participant graduated.
The „Citizenship‟ section (4 items) targeted issues of the importance of South African
citizenship and personal contribution to national development. This matter was identified by Mattes and Richmond (2002) in the SAMP study as predicting migration because it is thought that permanent migration is more likely if one is willing to relinquish their South African citizenship or if their citizenship is not of much consequence.
„Migration of others‟ (4 items) focused around the number of family, friends and colleagues who had already engaged in international migration. This section speaks to the notion of social networks as migration is less likely and more difficult when one is the „pioneer‟
migrant (Fischer, et al., 1997b; Lucas, 2005). However, if one has personal and professional connections abroad, one may be more likely to view migration as more feasible and attractive (Lucas, 2005). The notion of the benefits of migration for one‟s personal and professional networks already abroad was assessed through an item which required the respondent to compare their network‟s lives before and after migration.
„Satisfaction and prospects‟ (17 items) aimed to assess various aspects of personal and professional life and whether these were expected to improve or worsen within the next five years. The components which were addressed included: job satisfaction, prospects for professional advancement, professional advancement through additional education and/or
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training, level of income, personal safety, assessments of national stability, safety when working in urban and rural areas, and opinions regarding national government.
„Information‟ (7 items) assessed how often information was received from the media, friends, family and professional associates regarding living conditions and job opportunities in other countries. In some respects, this section linked the previous two sections, as it addressed sources and types of information gained about other countries.
„“Most Likely Destination” comparison‟ (9 items) required the respondent to name the country to which they would most prefer to migrate and the country to which they would most likely migrate. The identification of a „Most Preferred Destination‟ (MPD) and „Most Likely Destination‟ (MLD) served two purposes. Firstly, it created a profile within the sample of the most popular destinations that health professionals consider migrating to.
Secondly, the use of the respondent‟s own MLD avoided the use of somewhat generic terms such as „developed‟ or „industrialized‟ nations. It may have been difficult and somewhat vague to ask respondents to compare their personal and professional lives in South Africa with that of how they view their lives in „developed‟ or „industrialized‟ countries. One could argue that there are many differences between living and working in the U.S.A., the U.K., Italy or Sweden. It would be far too simplistic to view all developed nations as equally attractive as migration destinations. Thus, in choosing a MLD, the respondent is allowed to think in more concrete and certain terms about a particular context. Respondents were then asked to compare their MLD with South Africa in terms of: overall conditions, job, prospects for professional advancement, prospects for professional advancement through additional training and education, level of income, and personal safety.
The final section, „Migration intention‟ (20 items), attempted to assess the emigration potential of the respondent and was used as a dependent variable within the analysis. This potential is operationalized as a combination of consideration, desire, likelihood and commitment to migration (Mattes & Richmond, 2002). The likelihood and duration of migration invites the respondent to assess how long they would emigrate for. This indicates whether the migration would be temporary, which could imply the return of enriched human resources in terms of training, professional networks, technical knowledge and other relevant skills (Lucas, 2005). The commitment to migration is indicated through decisions about family, finances, citizenship, timing and actual planning that has been put into what it would
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take to leave the country (Mattes & Richmond, 2002). Therefore, a respondent who has investigated the processes necessary for gaining a work permit and professional registration in their MLD, would want to become a citizen of their MLD, and would be willing to take family members with them, may be more likely to actually emigrate than a respondent who had not made such enquiries. In addition, a respondent who intends to migrate sooner rather than later is much more likely to actually emigrate, as „leaving in six months‟ is much more concrete than is the more abstract and distant „leaving in the next five years‟.