NASP International and Interdisciplinary Seminars

Workplace integration of healthcare professionals:
Some insights from two Spanish hospitals 

Claudia Finotelli
 (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

16 January 2026, h. 14:30
NASP Graduate School 
Room A
Via Pace 10, Milan

Abstract
The logics of organisations play a crucial role in the integration of immigrants. Although scholars have paid attention to the various dimensions of integration (political, legal, socio-economic and cultural), the relationship between immigrant integration and the specific dynamics of organisations is a relatively unexplored field. But how do organisations such hospitals, the army or schools respond to increasing ethnic diversity? What impact do specific ideas and values within organisations have on immigrant integration? This paper presents the results of the Work-INT project examining the workplace integration of healthcare professionals in two large Spanish hospitals. The analysis shows that the lack of articulated diversity policies does not seem to have significantly affected the integration of professionals in these workplaces. As interviews reveal, healthcare professionals are expected to adapt the way of working and of building relationships in each hospital. Against this backdrop, immigrant integration is considered a matter of professional rather than cultural assimilation. However, major obstacles to immigrant integration appear to stem from existing barriers to the permanent employment of third country national and the cumbersome administrative procedures for recognising foreign credentials.