Transatlantic Roundtable on High–skilled Migration and Sending Countries Issues

Globalization and the advent of the knowledge economy have created a new context where there is a greater demand for the highly skilled, especially in the information technology (IT) industry. High–skilled migration has become increasingly more complex, even if in recent years the term "brain drain" has become a generic reference to "high–skilled migration" of all types. It has also become clear that brain mobility does not automatically translate into "brain drain", and that impacts vary by the types of skills held by migrants.
The meeting demonstrated that while much is known about high–skilled migration and its effects on source countries, there is also a great deal yet to be learned in a dynamic environment. Many participants deplored the lack of reliable data, which makes it difficult to know what is really going on and to establish appropriate policies. Clearly, there are an array of policies that can offset possible adverse effects of skilled mobility and even leverage the flow into positive outcomes for source countries. A key element is improvement of the population's general level of education. Low levels of skills keep average labour productivity and wages low and therefore retard development. Long–term strategies to promote economic growth are needed to enable developing countries to retain and draw back their highly skilled and address the negative effects of the brain drain. Migrants themselves can play an important role through their remittances, diaspora networks, and own willingness to return – at least temporarily — to share their skills and contribute to economic progress. Finally, destination countries can facilitate the process through policies that promote circulation of highly skilled migrants.     

Of Skilled Migration,Brain Drains and Policy Responses*

Developed countries are increasingly trying to attract skilled migrants, rarely giving any consideration to the impact that this migration might have on countries of origin. The debate on the “brain drain” is not new but it has taken on greater urgency in the context of a globalizing economy and ageing societies and this article reviews the evidence over time and space. It examines opposing interpretations of the impact of the skilled from countries of origin and goes on to examine the particular case of the migration of health professionals. Health workers are seen to be key to achieving basic welfare objectives in any country and their loss may be critical to countries of origin. Hence, the movement of health professionals may be central to any understanding of a brain drain. However, the case for a brain drain, even in this sector, is not straightforward. Specific country and place of origin of the skilled, place of training, appropriateness of training, fit of skills to needs, and the role of return and inmigration of health professionals all need to be taken into consideration. The article examines the case for a two‐tiered health training system, one for global markets and the other for local markets. Retention and return of the skilled are examined through the potential for outsourcing in both education and health care. The article concludes with an examination of policy approaches towards skilled migration and offers pointers towards a more balanced and integrated approach by placing the emphasis on development rather than control of migrants.     

The need to import skilled personnel: factors favouring and hindering its international mobility

Skilled migration has become a major element of contemporary flows. It has developed in scale and variety since the 1930s and now takes many forms, including “brain drain”, professional transients, skilled permanent migrants and business transfers. Nevertheless, the data are poor, inconsistent and usually not differentiated by sex. The importance of policies, both national and regional, to control the movement of skilled migrants has escalated. Receiving countries have come increasingly to see the benefits from admitting skilled workers and have adjusted their permanent and/or temporary migration laws/policies to facilitate entry, usually on the proviso that it does not disadvantage their own workers by taking away their jobs. Another set of policy frameworks within which skilled migration is occurring is regional blocs. The experience of the European Union (EU) in promoting the flow of skilled labour, movement in this direction in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mercosul, the Closer Economic Relations (CER) Agreement between Australia and New Zealand and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum are analysed. The article poses two sets of issues facing sending and receiving countries. For sending countries they are: whether to free up or tighten migration; whether to support temporary skilled flows; whether to introduce protective or preventive measures to stem skilled emigration; how to encourage the return of skilled nationals; and whether/how to pursue compensation from post-industrialized countries. For receiving countries they are: whether to encourage temporary or permanent skilled immigration; the level of entry to permit/promote; how to select/process skilled immigrants; whether/how to protect the jobs of locals; and how they ensure the successful labour market integration of skilled immigrants. The article argues that the neo-classical view that skilled migration leads to overall improvement in global development does not apply. “Brain waste” or “wasted skills” occur frequently, to the detriment of both individuals and nations. Improved data and constructive dialogue on skilled migration are needed. Within both regional and international contexts, countries have obligations and responsibilities towards each other which need to be taken seriously.     

The Migration of Professionals: Theories and Typologies

In an historical context, highly skilled migration typically involved the forced movement of professionals as a result of political conflicts, followed by the emergence of the "brain drain" in the 1960s.
In the current situation, highly skilled migration represents an increasingly large component of global migration streams. The current state of theory in relation to highly skilled migration is far from adequate in terms of explaining what is occurring at the high skill end of the migration spectrum.
Continuing growth of temporary skilled migration is heralding changes in the operation of professions. Formal procedures for recognizing the skills of permanent immigrant professionals are breaking down as "fast-track" processes for assessing the skills of temporary professional migrants are put in place. The increasing globalization of firms and the internationalization of higher education are encouraging professions to internationalize.
In this article, four professions are cited as case studies to show that professional inclusion/exclusion is no longer defined by national professional bodies alone. The operation of professions has become a transnational matter although the extent of internationalization varies with professions.
Typologies for analysing professional migration flows are discussed and a sixth means of categorization, by profession or industry, is introduced to allow for the nature of interactions between the market, the state and the profession/industry. The question whether states should continue to be concerned about self-sufficiency in national professional labour markets in an increasingly globalized environment is also addressed.     

Structuration of Indian Information Technology Professionals’ Migration to Australia: An Ethnographic Study

Information Technology (IT) is leading to a new form of capital accumulation as is clearly evident in the IT industry. Regardless of its origin and amount, capital can be circulated and accumulated on a global scale, at an unprecedented speed and therefore with extreme volatility. An urgent task of the study of globalization and migration is to understand the international labour system of the “new economy”. This article is an ethnographic study of those agents who have been the main means by which Indian IT professionals move globally. “Body shopping” is the practice whereby a firm recruits IT workers and then farms them out to clients for a particular project, though the firm itself is not involved in the project. The key players in “body shopping” are a series of recruitment agents. They form “agent chains” where they depend on each other and assume different functions in dealing with the market, the state and the workers. “Body shops” rely on ethnic networks. Their practices have led to the emergence of a flexible international labour supply system that benefits some IT professionals but also imposes costs.     

The Chinese Policy of Highly-Qualified Human Capital: A Strategic Factor for Global Competition in Innovation

International migration is a historical phenomenon, which only recently has gained increasing importance, representing a focal point on the political agenda in most countries. One of the reasons is the deep transformation occurring in last decades, both at global and local level, of the role played by its protagonists that are turning to be transnational agents. This is especially true for the skilled professionals, who migrate internationally. As a matter of fact, international human capital mobility is now regarded as “brain circulation” rather than “brain drain”: this new concept concerns individuals who maintain frequent and continued social, economic and political ties with their country of origin, exceeding thereby the territorial and cultural boundaries. In this scenario, China is one of the main sending countries of highly-skilled migrants, through which it can built economic and academic relations with other economic and technological advanced countries. Recently, Chinese policy makers have started to consider the brain drain phenomenon as an opportunity for the transmission of business and technological know-how, as well as tacit knowledge that is hard to find through official channels. This article intends to contribute to the scientific debate on the subject, highlighting the international relevance of the so-called Overseas Chinese Professionals (OCPs), investigating their spatial distribution and features. Besides, the paper will examine the emerging returning flow and the challenge that the country will have to cope with in the next future to impose itself as a innovative leading economy.     

The Education‐Migration Industry: International Students,Migration Policy and the Question of Skills

This special section specifically focuses on student‐migrants and the way they are being catered to by an emerging education‐migration industry. The articles included build upon the observation that especially within the Asia‐Pacific region there is an increasing conflation and entanglement between categories of international students and skilled migrants. This has led to an emerging “industry” that facilitates study‐abroad trajectories and acts as broker for two‐step migration pathways. This Introduction aims to situate the research presented here within the broader context of a burgeoning field of research which examines the growing popularity of international education across the Asia‐Pacific region; the way its emergence is increasingly entangled with specific ambitions that skilled migration programmes cater to; and the way highly regulated skilled migration programmes have given rise to a migration industry in general.     

What Human Capital,Which Migrants? Returned Skilled Migration to Slovakia From the UK1

This article contributes to the understanding of skilled labor migration by exploring some of the differences in the economic behavior of three contrasting groups of returned skilled labor migrants from Slovakia to the United Kingdom: professionals and managers; students; and au pairs. Formal professional experiences and training provide only limited understanding of the value of working/studying abroad. Instead, there is a need to look at particular competences, such as interpersonal skills and self‐confidence, as well as the role of social recognition. The empirical results also emphasize the importance of spatiality and temporality when analyzing skilled labor migration.     

Temporary Skilled Migration to Australia: Employers' Perspectives1

With the 1996 introduction of a new visa making it easier for employers to sponsor skilled foreign workers, temporary skilled migration has become a significant component of international migration flows to Australia. This paper examines employers' reasons for sponsoring skilled workers from abroad, their modes of recruitment, the occupational skills they require, and their industry profile. We also discuss issues relating to the perception of a shortage of skilled workers, the extent that sponsoring foreign workers substitutes for investing in local training, and the role of networks in recruiting overseas workers. Many employers' now have a global view of labour recruitment. While this is understandable for multinational companies with global operations, many small businesses and public sector institutions are adopting the same strategy to obtain skilled labour which they say is in short supply in Australia. With the internationalization of the Australian economy, there is also an increasing demand for people with specialized skills and knowledge that is not available in Australia's relatively small labour market. An understanding of the demand factors motivating temporary skilled migration is crucial to effectively managing Australia's migration and labour trends.     

Labour migration from South and South-East Asia: some policy issues

The rise in migration for employment since the mid-1970s has had serious consequences for many Asian countries. This discussion examines the issues raised by the migration abroad of thousands of skilled workers and the efforts that sending countries have made in recent years to bring the effects of labor migration more closely into line with their development objectives. It also considers several problem areas requiring the attention of policymakers and authorities responsible for the administration of overseas employment policies. It is estimated that between 1976-81 annual labor migrant flows from the 8 major sending countries in Asia increased sevenfold, from a mere 146,400 to over 1 million. The Asian migrant workers tend to be young, male, married (with dependents in the sending country), and better educated than the average home population. Most of them come from rural areas and are predominantly employed in construction and labor. The most distinctive feature of these workers is their concentration in a few blue collar occupations--carpenters, masons, electricians, plumbers, lorry drivers, mechanics, and heavy equipment operators. These production and trnasport workers outnumber the professional and technical workers by anywhere from 3 to 1 (Philippines) to 17 to 1 (Pakistan and Sri Lanka). At the aggregate level labor emigration affects the sending country's economy through its impact on the labor market, on the financial market, and on the market for goods and services. It can be argued that the outflow of a significant proportion of the labor force should lead directly to a rise in labor projectivity in the sending country since capital per worker among those left behind will increase, yet it can also be argued that since migration sifts out the most skilled and experienced workers there will be an erosion of the country's human captial resources. Specific measures have been adopted in most labor sending Asian countries to protect the welfare of migrant workers, to regulate conditions of employment abroad, to restrict the outflow of scarce skills, and to secure new overseas markets for nationals. Despite the efforts of governments to ensure that workers have satisfactory contracts on going abroad, many cases of "contract substitution" have been reported. The present attitude of many governments toward private recruiters seems to reflect both an acknowledgement of their effectiveness in finding job placements overseas and a growing concern to regulate their activities. The present trend seems to be to allow private agencies easier access while exercising greater supervision over those permitted to operate. The impact of labor migration on the labor markets of sending countries has not been uniformly damaging, but most of the countries have adopted 1 kind of policy or another to reduce the outflow of scarce skills. The use of material and other incentives for retaining workers in the country has obvious advantages but is not very widespread.     

When what you have is not enough—Acquiring Australian qualifications to overcome non-recognition of overseas skills

Skilled migration is an important strategy in developed economies seeking to address skills shortages and population ageing. Research on the labour market outcomes of skilled migrants tends to focus on employers' devaluation of skills without considering the role of immigration policy in the migration process. Moreover, there is little understanding of whether efforts to meet employer demands for local qualifications improve labour market outcomes. Drawing on a study on skilled migrants sponsored under the State-Specific and Regional Migration Scheme in the regional state of South Australia, we explore the shaping of skills and skills recognition in the migration journey, particularly migrants' strategy of reskilling in response to employer demands for local qualifications. Our logistic regressions on the association between the acquisition of Australian qualifications and labour market outcomes reveal only marginal returns to these efforts. We argue that Australia should consider developing a more coherent skilled migration process to better harness the human capital of skilled migrants.     

The gap between career management expectations and reality – empirical insights from the IT industry

The Information Technology (IT) industry has become an important economic factor in many Western countries, but it is well known for suffering from skills shortages and high turnover rates. Organizational career management (OCM) may help to attract new talent and reduce IT turnover by satisfying individuals’ career needs. However, to date, little is known about what, exactly, IT professionals expect in terms of career-related support, and whether their expectations match with what IT organizations provide. This paper reports on a quantitative study that investigated what 1686 IT professionals in Switzerland, Germany and the UK expected and what their employers provided in terms of OCM. Findings indicate that there are substantial mismatches between OCM ‘supply’ and ‘demand’. The paper makes an important contribution by providing a more in-depth understanding of IT professionals’ OCM preferences, leading to various practical implications for IT organizations and beyond.     

Policies for Recruiting Talented Professionals from the Diaspora: India and China Compared

Despite the continuous asymmetrical power relations between the Global North and South, the “global race for talent” is no longer a privilege enjoyed only by developed countries. Comparative analysis of policy content and effectiveness has attracted increasing interest. The examination of policy initiatives resulting in return migration of highly‐skilled migrants from the Global North to the Global South, however, remains inadequate. In this article, we provide a comparative analysis of policies targeting high‐level Chinese and Indian professionals including full‐time returnees. Two key differences in policy instruments and outcomes in the two countries are identified and they have implications for migration policies in other countries in the Global South and North.     

Trends in International and Internal Teacher Mobility in Three Pacific Island Countries

High‐skilled migration has increasingly been the subject of migration research over the past decade, but the focus has tended to be on health and IT professionals. In this paper, we address the mobility of schoolteachers in a region that has so far received little attention, the Pacific Islands. It is timely to examine trends in teacher mobility in the Pacific, given the shortages that are occurring elsewhere. In particular, the tailoring of immigration policies to attract highly skilled workers in areas of shortage could impact on the Pacific. The focus of the paper is on emigration and we argue that of three countries studied, only Fiji is negatively affected by teacher mobility. The Cook Islands and Vanuatu are currently experiencing low levels of international teacher emigration. Levels of internal mobility are also investigated in an attempt to see if remote areas and outer islands are experiencing teacher shortages. The preference for working near one’s land or on one’s home island is a strong drawcard in bringing people back home to teach. A problem arises, however, when not enough people are trained from a region/island and the incentives to encourage others to go and work there are less than effective.     

Introduction: New Dynamics of Chinese Migration to Europe

This introduction provides a presentation of the articles in this special issue by framing the contributions in the context of new dynamics related to Chinese migration studies and the ongoing discussions of the impact of China’s powerful economic position. The articles offer new empirical insights to develop new understandings of recent migration and mobilities between China and Europe. By focusing on the changing socio-economic composition of Chinese migrants in Europe towards highly skilled professionals and investors, changes in Chinese entrepreneurship, increasing Chinese political engagement and activism, and new migration from Europe to China by Chinese descendants, these contributions reflect the importance of developing new theories to better grasp the causes and effects of China’s new global economic and political position for Chinese migration. The selected articles identify promising directions for future work on the global discussions of the impact of China as a diaspora state and ensuing policy implications.     

Health-care Work in Globalization: News Reports on Care Worker Migration to Japan

Health-care worker migration has emerged as a social issue in Japan, contrary to it has in Indonesia. This article shows how national contexts affected by globalization have shaped social understandings and policies towards health-care worker migration in the two societies over time. Analyses of news coverage in the Japanese and Indonesian national media reveal a gap of social responses toward this change. The Japanese are more likely to respond negatively to health-care worker migration; yet they intend to face cross-cultural challenges, although slowly, making revisions to related policies. In contrast, in Indonesia, from where health-care workers migrate to Japan and many other countries, this tends to be understood positively, overall, as providing economic benefits and permitting Indonesian professionals to contribute to the worker shortage in Japan. I interpret these results based on the literature on health-care worker migration, emerging global norms and local changes, and comparative research on employment and care work. This study contributes to the sociological understanding of worker migration and health-care issues.     

Return Migration in Africa and the Relationship between Educational Attainment and Labor Market Success: Evidence from Uganda

The return migration of skilled professionals has been suggested as a policy instrument suitable for reversing the large‐scale emigration of skilled professionals from African countries. However, there are no empirical studies showing how migrant professionals from Africa are reintegrated into the labor market after they return. This study examines the relationship between educational attainment and the likelihood of employment among native‐born African migrants returning home from abroad. The study focuses on the evidence from Uganda since this country has one of the longest histories of skilled migration in Africa. The results show that returning migrants with university degrees and vocational credentials are more likely to be employed than their nonmigrant and immigrant counterparts. However, this employment advantage was not observed among returning migrants with secondary schooling or below. Furthermore, the results show that returning migrants are generally more likely to be employed as district employment rates increase.     

Unlocking the Talents‐in‐Waiting: Case Study Analysis of Chinese and Indian High‐Skilled Migrants in South Australia

Nations across the world and through time have used skilled migration mechanisms to boost economic growth and workforce competitiveness. However, effectively using these talents from abroad and transforming this collective human capital into valuable social capital is an on‐going challenge. This study applies a case study analysis of skilled migrants from China and India in South Australia and finds that there are multiple barriers to the successful integration of skilled migrants. These barriers tend to block the effective utilization of migrants’ skills and reduce the ability to advance social capital in the community. The study concludes by putting forward various policy recommendations to overcome these obstacles and outlines ideas for an effective application of a skilled migrant programme.     

Looking for the Best and Brightest? Deservingness Regimes in Italian Labour Migration Management

It is often maintained that contemporary foreign labour recruitment programs have taken an increasingly selective stance and that skills are increasingly crucial in granting migrants easier access and stronger welfare and residency rights in receiving countries. The paper provides a retrospective account of the evolution of Italian labour migration management, paying attention to the changing selection criteria reflected in some of its “front, back and side doors”. It will be shown that Italian labour migration management is increasingly embracing a bifurcated regime of deservingness. Despite some recent tentative signs of change towards an increased evaluation of high skills as a selection principle embedded into a competitiveness‐driven frame, over the last decades labour migration management has been largely dominated by the recruitment of a low‐skilled workforce. The paper discusses the emergence of a specific construction migrants’ deservingness placing Italy in a peculiar position in a European context.