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Highly Skilled Migration and International Flows of Talent, Knowledge, and Capital (TKC) is a project funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR). TKC aims to improve our understanding of whether and how highly skilled migrants activate their social networks and leverage their role as international knowledge gatekeepers, contribute to solve cross-border information problems, and transform the brain drain into brain gain and brain circulation. Highly skilled workers play a key role in today’s knowledge economies, as they introduce and diffuse innovations that encourage economic growth and well-being. Migrants are an essential component of these highly skilled workers worldwide: in 2013, the worldwide stock of migrants stood at 230 million, namely 3.2% of worldwide population (UN-DESA and OECD, 2013). However, important variations emerge across skills’ groups: tertiary educated immigrants living in OECD countries augmented by 70% during the 2000s, with just 10% for low-educated ones. Migration rates for the tertiary educated are higher than for the rest of the population, and generally increase with further education. Thus, differently from the past, highly skilled individuals represent the most dynamic component of international mobility flows. Far from taking place exclusively along a South-North or East-West axis, highly skilled migration occurs also between advanced economies, with the UK, Germany and other European countries as both destinations and origins. Science, technology, and engineering migration contributes heavily to these trends, including to its geographical variation. TKC’s research topic stands at the cross-roads of different disciplinary approaches, ranging from the geography of innovation, the economics of migration, and IB studies. All of them can be re-examined within the general theoretical framework of diaspora economics. Constant and Zimmermann (2016) define diasporas as “well-defined group(s) of migrants and their offspring with a joined cultural identity and ongoing identification with the country or culture of origin”, and propose to put them at centre-stage in all studies concerning migrations. While migration is the necessary precondition for diasporas to exist, not all migrant groups are internally bound by diasporic ties, nor ethnicity is the only source of such ties. In the case of highly skilled migrants, professional ties matter, too, as they both imply different migration channels and cohorts, and allows for specific forms of interaction. TKC is a theoretical and empirical project, whose deliverables will consist in research papers and open access datasets. Its ambition is to enrich the debate on migration on a global scale, but especially in Europe and France, where the dominant focus on low skilled or refugee immigration both obscures the importance of highly skilled flows and contributes to negative stereotyping. TKC will be articulated in six work-packages, taking a complementary approach between the macro (country), meso (firm), and micro (individual) levels of analysis. TKC has a strong engagement towards collecting micro-data concerning specific categories of very highly skilled workers, such as inventors, scientists and executives, with the migrant status to be ascertained by available biographic information and/or name analysis. These data may provide a suitable and interesting alternative to more classic data sources, both because of their detail and for their pointing at homogenous professional groups, rather than generically tertiary educated workers.

This paper aims at exploring how countries of origin can affect migrants’ socio-cultural integration in multicultural European societies. Socio-cultural integration is considered through the lenses of different kinds of social interactions between migrants and host society namely: intermarriages, interethnic friendship, interethnic relations in workplaces, and encounters in the neighbourhood. The literature review highlighted that these social interactions prove to depend on a multiplicity of factors related mainly to the destination country (such as residential segregation, degree of racism and acceptance, opportunities for encounters and neighbourhood effects) and of individual factors related to the migrant (such as demographic characteristics, migration trajectory and length of residence and work position). The impact of countries of origin and transnational links is more difficult to assess considering that little research has directly dealt with the issue. However, the paper shows that some non-state actors such as family members and some state-actors such as Ministries or consulates, may have an influence on the social interactions of emigrants abroad even though this influence can be indirect. The paper tries to map actors and related actions including very specific cases like family pressure to discourage intermarriage or broader ones through programmes targeting diaspora which may have an empowerment effect on emigrants and thus foster their socio-cultural integration. Finally, through the paper, some specific case studies on transnational ties and integration are presented and several hypotheses and questions for further research are highlighted.

The purpose of this article is to focus on the actions and players from the countries of emigration which support or do not support the maintenance of native languages of migrants in Europe. For this, links need to be discovered which exist between European languages and languages of origin. Firstly, all languages are not important. A social hierarchy exists which depends on the context of elocution. Multilingualism was gradually developed during the 20th century but all bilingualisms are not considered as a resource. Bilingualism related to immigration is often synonymous with handicap and deficit of integration which justifies a certain essentialisation of the language. However, language learning depends partly on its social value in the host country and the country of origin. This social recognition rests for example on the fact that it concerns an oral or written language; a religious language, an international language, etc. This article thus aims at understanding the European and national language policies set up to support the mobility of individuals and their entry into new territories.

The paper deals with the problems of integration in migration processes taking place in Azerbaijan. The paper, after defining integration, distinguishes between the problems of migrant integration in Azerbaijan and the integration of Azerbaijani migrants in other countries. In the former case we speak of refugees’ and forced migrants’ adaptation, as well as the adaptation of Azerbaijan citizens returning home from other countries. But Azerbaijan has also recently experienced an inflow of thousands of labour migrants, principally from Asian countries. The paper considers the difference in the approaches taken by the Republic’s authorities to various migrant categories. The problems of Azerbaijani emigrants, differing considerably in respect of a recipient country, are considered as well. Azerbaijani migrants, have lived and worked, sometimes for years, in Russia and CIS countries. Yet they have never lost ties with their homeland and they have been attentively following its socio-political developments with an apparent desire to return at the first signs of positive changes there. This meant an unwillingness to take on, say, Russian socio-cultural patterns or, for that matter, those of any other post-Soviet community, including local languages and local behavioral norms. Much was here conditioned by the Soviet past. The situation of Azerbaijani migrants in European countries is different: there is a language barrier, a visa regime and strict immigration rules, whereas the labour market is well provided with migrants from numerous countries. There Azerbaijani migrants were faced with a dilemma: if they chose to leave for these countries this meant leaving their country for good together with their families and they had to think of integration into local communities. For Azerbaijanis not adapted to live in a diaspora and in isolation from their homeland this posed a serious problem. Therefore, a decision to migrate to European countries was taken only by those who were self-confident, had the necessary skills and knowledge, including the relevant language skills, and by those who were forced to take such a step.

The integration of migrants is a complex and lengthy process, and it depends on a number of factors: socio-economic, psychological, legal and political. Research covering this issue, conducted in Armenia, mainly relate to the local integration of the refugees forcibly displaced from Azerbaijan in 1988-1992 and especially to socio-economic aspects of that process . This is due to the fact that since independence refugees were the most important numerically, and their socio-economic issues were acute. Research has covered a wide range of integration issues with special emphasis on legal acts ensuring the implementation of this process/procedure. In particular, the issues related to the integration of foreign nationals (who are ethnically Armenian) arriving in Armenia from the Diaspora, as well as new refugees, who have found asylum in Armenia since 2000, not to mention the refugees who arrived 1988-1992, were examined. The RA citizens returning from foreign states to Armenia have been considered as a separate migration flow and the issues related to their reintegration are also touched upon. Relevant legal acts have been analyzed in the light of challenges faced in their implementation. Some institutional decisions, case-law, findings of the International organizations, NGOs, etc. have been included in the paper.

This project intends to study intercultural connections in contemporary Europe, engaging both native and ‘new’ Europeans. These connections are woven through the faculties of embodied subjects – memory, visuality and mobility – and concern the movement of people, ideas and images across the borders of European nation-states. These faculties are connected with that of affect, an increasingly important concept in history and the social sciences. Memory will be understood not only as oral or direct memory, but also as cultural memory, embodied in various cultural products. Our study aims to understand new forms of European identity, as these develop in an increasingly diasporic world. Europe today is not only a key site of immigration, after having been for centuries an area of emigration, but also a crucial point of arrival in a global network designed by mobile human beings. Three parts will make up the project. The first will engage with bodies, their gendered dimension, performative capacities and connection to place. It will explore the ways certain bodies are ‘emplaced’ as ‘European’, while others are marked as alien, and contrast these discourses with the counter-narratives by visual artists. The second part will extend further the reflection on the role of the visual arts in challenging an emergent ‘Fortress Europe’ but also in re-imagining the memory of European colonialism. The work of some key artists will be shown to students in Italy and the Netherlands, both recent migrants and ‘natives’, creating an ‘induced reception’. The final part of the project will look at alternative imaginations of Europe, investigating the oral memories and ‘mental maps’ created by two migrant communities in Europe: from Peru and from the Horn of Africa. Examining the heterogeneous micro-productions of mobility – whether ‘real’ or imagined/envisioned – will thus yield important lessons for the historical understanding of inclusion and exclusion in today’s Europe.

Emigration is not separately emphasized in the “Concept for the Policy of State Regulation of Migration in the Republic of Armenia” (2010) as a priority direction. Issues related to emigration are captured in various emigration areas, such as labor emigration, illegal emigration from Armenia and etc. The emigration flows originating from Armenia are mainly composed of labor emigration flows therefore in this Note we have analyzed the policy pursued by the state on labor emigration. An immigration policy also is not set up in the Concept Paper as a separate issue, which is probably conditioned by the low immigration flows towards Armenia. Nowadays Armenian Government is doing great efforts on keeping ties with Diaspora. Constitutional amendments, approved by the referendum in 2005, abolished the norm to ban dual citizenship. In 2008 the Ministry of Diaspora was established. In 2009 the Concept Paper on Development of Armenia and Diaspora Co-operation was approved by the Armenian Government and the Draft of the Concept Paper on Organization of Repatriation Process has already been developed.

The paper assesses opportunities and develops proposals for the integration of immigrants, as well as the adaptation of re-emigrants – long-term Ukrainian labour migrants returning home. An analysis of immigration to Ukraine has been carried out on the basis of: the 2001 population census; the current registering of migration processes; and also administrative sources of information. These sources include material from the Ministry of the Interior of Ukraine, the State Migration Service of Ukraine, the State Employment Service of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine, as well as data from special sampling surveys, including those held under the author’s guidance. The paper considers three specific migration groups in Ukraine: ‘non-traditional’ immigrants; the ‘Soviet Diaspora’; and long-term labour emigrants. An assessment has been made of ‘non-traditional’ immigrants in Ukraine and the prospects for their integration. A bilateral approach was here employed – the comparison of opinions from Ukrainian citizens and from foreigners on the basis of student youth surveys (including foreign students). It has been demonstrated that the frequency of contacts between immigrants and the receiving society is an important integration mechanism. An assessment has been made of the conditions of long-term Ukrainian migrants in recipient countries with the conclusion that these conditions are not significantly different from the conditions of short- and medium-term migrants. Particular attention has been paid to the ‘Soviet Diaspora,’ thus far practically untouched by scholarly publications in Ukraine. It is shown that the Soviet Diaspora in Ukraine (and other former USSR republics) has certain features sharply distinguishing it from ‘diaspora’ in the classical sense. An attempt has been made to define the term, develop the criteria to limit the reference groups and to assess the dimensions of the Soviet Diaspora. An analysis of current Ukrainian immigration policies has been given. Policy recommendations for perfecting Ukrainian state policy in the field of immigration, immigrants’ integration and the reintegration of returning long-term Ukrainian labour migrants have been formulated as well.

Le Mali est à la fois un pays d’immigration et d’émigration. Des cadres étrangers hautement qualifiés travaillent dans de nombreux secteurs de développement de ce pays (bâtiments, travaux publics, médecine, sociétés minières, industries sucrières). Dans le même temps, des cadres maliens de haut niveau ont émigré vers tous les continents. Ce phénomène a constitué un véritable handicap pour le développement du Mali. En réaction à cette perte, il a conclu une convention avec le PNUD pour bénéficier de l’expertise de la diaspora hautement qualifiée établie dans les pays étrangers. Le Programme TOKTEN (Transfer of Knowledge Trough Expatriate Nationals) lui a permis d’améliorer la qualité de enseignement supérieur, de former de nombreux enseignants, et d’ouvrir l’université de Bamako sur le monde extérieur. Le TOKTEN a également eu un impact positif sur les domaines de la santé et de l’agriculture. Malgré quelques insuffisances, son bilan est très positif et il a été prolongé. Mali is a country of immigration and of emigration. Highly-qualified foreign nationals work in many sectors linked to the development of the country including building, public works, medicine, mines and sugar industries. Meanwhile, highly-qualified Malians have emigrated all around the world. This phenomenon has constituted a real handicap to Mali’s development. To react to this loss, Mali concluded a convention with the UNPD in order to profit from the expertise of its highly-qualified diaspora. The resulting TOKTEN Programme (Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals) has enabled Mali to improve the quality of its higher education, to train a number of professors and to open Bamako university to the world. The TOKTEN Programme has also had a positive impact on health and agriculture in Mali. Despite some problems, its results are positive and it has been extended.

The Great Hunger (1845-49) radically transformed Ireland: it led to the wide-scale eviction of farmers, killed one million of the rural population, and caused massive emigration to other parts of the British Empire and the United States. Moreover, the Great Famine encouraged anti-English, nationalist sentiments and its trauma is pivotal to the development of an Irish postcolonial consciousness between 1847-1921. There is a vast unexplored transatlantic corpus of prose fiction, written between the aftermath of the Famine and the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which remembers the years of starvation and diaspora. My project is the first to inventorise and bring together this under-researched body of literature, written in Ireland and by Irish immigrants in England, Canada and the United States. This fiction requires intensive examination for significant reasons, offering alternative perspectives on how the Famine was culturally experienced than previous studies have displayed, and representing subaltern voices and recollections. Moreover, the texts are written in the homeland as well as in diaspora, by migrated Irish or their descendants. An examination of the corpus will therefore move beyond the largely nation-oriented frontiers of cultural memory studies towards innovative, transnational approaches. The project specifically investigates how remembrance is mediated through time, from one generation to another, and space, in diaspora. It aims to evolve a novel theoretical model about the interaction between temporal and spatial relocation in literary remembrance. This pioneering model will generate groundbreaking insights into the interaction between memory and ethnic identity in comparative contexts of cultural dislocation, a colonised homeland and migrant communities; and in processes of cultural relocation: de-colonisation and ethnic integration. At the same time, the project will analyse genre aspects which play a dynamic role in processes of cultural remembrance, contributing a new perspective to the interdisciplinary debate on media of recollection in cultural memory studies.

The Immigration Policies in Comparison (IMPIC) database includes data on migration policies for 33 OECD countries and the period 1980-2010. The IMPIC defines immigration policy as “government’s statements of what it intends to do or not do (incl. laws, regulations, decisions, or orders) in regards to the selection, admission, settlement and deportation of foreign citizens residing in the country”. The index covers: 1) labour migration; 2) family reunification; 3) refugees and asylum; 4) co-ethnics (e.g., easy access to co-ethics -e.g., children of emigrants). A total of 69 indicators are identified for the four policies fields. Indicators are coded between 0 (more liberal policies) and 1 (more restrictive polices) capturing the extent to which ‘a regulation limits or liberalises the rights and freedoms of immigrants.

The project focus on mobility related to one of the central element of every society: labour market. One of the reasons more frequently adduced at the base of the choice of emigrate is the research of a job. Many scholars have analysed migratory chains and professional specializations of ethnic groups , stressing as immigrants communities were able to conquer relevant places on the labour market. Therefore, the fact that immigrants were not secondary actors on the labour market stage is ascertained, and some studies point out as many foreign people could reach a prestigious position in the city of arrival . Pre-industrial cities and their labour market, in fact, seem to be quite open to foreigners: as many scholars have underlined , modern towns did not divide their inhabitants between citizens and not, but rather between stable and temporary inhabitants. This feature of openness is at the base of the strong circulation of women, men, wealth and knowledges between pre-industrial European countries. In all the major cities we can find foreigners communities, which are frequently well inserted in the local labour markets, to whose functioning they are an indispensable part. Migrant workers mobility traces therefore the lines of a working common space, an European Labour Market where women, men, wealth and knowledges move along, a common space kept together despite its differences and its largeness by the networks between different (and sometimes far) cities, built up and kept in time by its migrant inhabitants.