Research issues in the international migration of highly skilled workers: a perspective with data from the United States

This paper provides a checklist and discussion of the benefits and cost of highly skilled migrants for both sending and receiving countries. When possible it tries to analyse or illustrate these nation-level benefits and costs using data on scientists and engineers in the U.S. labor market or in U.S. graduate education. In contrast to discussions of "brain drain", it is clear that there are many benefits of high-skill migration for sending countries, as well as some negatives for receiving countries. In addition, the greatest gains from migration may not occur at the nation-state level, but globally from gains in knowledge transfer and efficiency

Research and policy issues in high-skilled international migration A perspective with data from the United States

Hochqualifizierte Migranten werden zunehmend zu wichtigen Arbeitskraeften auf dem Weltwirtschaftsmarkt. Auf dem Hintergrund eines wachsenden Welthandels, der Zunahme von Forschung und Entwicklung und der generellen Arbeitsmarktnachfrage nach unterschiedlichsten speziellen Qualifikationen, kann festgestellt werden, dass in vielen Laendern die politischen Debatten verstaerkt um das Thema hochqualifizierte Migranten kreisen. Dabei geht der Beitrag ueber das vereinfachte Konzept 'brain drain/ brain gain' hinaus und widmet sich der eher komplexen Frage der Auswirkungen internationaler Wanderung von hochqualifizierten Arbeitskraeften im Zusammenhang mit der Loesung von zentralen Forschungs- und Politikfragen. (ICCUeBERS)'Highly-skilled migrants are becoming a more important part of the world economy and of policy debates in a diverse set of countries. The proliferation of skills around the world, increases in world trade, the growth of R and D, and the general increase in the labor market demand for diverse sets of skills, have all contributed to the emergence of high-skilled migration as a major issue. High-skilled migration is often discussed in narrow terms of 'brain drain/ brain gain', when both the pattern of migration and its effects appear to be much more complex. However, our understanding of the effects of high skilled migration is much less than for international migration in general, and is based upon much less research and data. This paper reviews the possible effects of high skilled international migration, and the major research and policy questions that need answering.' (author's abstract)German title: Forschung und politische Debatten um hochqualifizierte internationale MigrationAvailable from ftp://ftp.iza.org/dps/dp366.pdf / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman