NURSING AND MIGRATION
As with many of the issue topics that I plan with members of the Advances in Nursing Science ANS Advisory Board, we recognized the importance, even the urgency, of addressing the topic of migration. At the same time, we felt a bit uneasy about what might be "out there" that would meet the journal's standards of scholarship for such a topic. But as we have done so often, we agreed to put the topic on the list of forthcoming issues in order to call forth scholarship in the discipline that could make a significant contribution to our collective understanding and insight about worldwide migration, and how it affects, and is affected by, nursing.
Our hopes for this issue were indeed affirmed!! We received a modest, but important, number of submissions for this topic. Many of the manuscripts that are not published in this issue were judged to have significant potential for development, and ANS reviewers provided those authors with constructive guidance that hopefully will assist them in seeking publication for their important work in the future. The articles that are published here have all undergone significant revisions based on insights and recommendations of reviewers, yielding an issue that represents some of the most important scholarship in nursing from both substantive and methodologic perspectives, and providing a springboard for future scholarship in this area.
The challenge with this topic for all of us as individuals, nurses, and scholars is to constantly and vigilantly struggle to overcome the parochial and hegemonic worldviews that saturate everyday discourses, thoughts, and actions, even when there is a conscious and deliberate effort to overcome these tendencies. I recently had a memorable conversation with a gentleman from Indonesia who has established a model assisted living group home into which my sister has moved. I jokingly asked him whether he had known Barack Obama when he was a child living in Indonesia. He grinned and said, "Oh, he is much older than I am!!" Then he proceeded to talk at length about how important it is to have a world leader who has more than a limited experience in only one country. He stated: "The way I see the world is entirely different from the way you see the world, because I know from experience what it is like to not have freedom, to not be able to work, to fear that you can lose your family. I hope Mr. Obama remembers all of that."
My hope is that this issue of Advances in Nursing Science will not only contribute to the knowledge of our discipline in this important area of worldwide migration but also give all readers a glimpse into several of those other worlds. The content of this issue has the potential to move all who read these articles to a place that is more sensitive to the limits of our own limited perspectives in the world and that provides a greater appreciation for the real challenges of those who inhabit other kinds of worlds.
- Peggy L. Chinn, PhD, RN, FAAN
Editor