Policies on high-skilled migration

The index focuses on labour immigration (and related rights) in the EU27. The data reflect the policies in place by 1st of January 2012. IMMEX analyses admission schemes for migrant workers, looking at both general-worker schemes and schemes for high-skilled migrants. The index, which has been developed by the Migration Policy Group (MPG), addresses four domains: identification needs; conditions of admission; security of status acquired; rights associated with status. Dimensions are assessed through a set of indicators and policy options (principles of human rights and good governance). The policy options are designed to capture the scope of immigration policies with the first option representing favourable terms laid down in existing international legal instruments, national practices or NGO proposals, and in some instances EC legislation (enacted and proposed). The second and third options are based on less favourable or unfavourable provisions of EC legislation (enacted or proposed) or national legislation. Legal experts in each of the EU27 countries were asked to assess which of the three policy options comes closest to the situation in their respective country. The index is presented by scheme and country, for general migrant workers and high-skilled migrant workers.

This study explores factors that initiate and perpetuate low skill labour migration from India to the EU, examines the migration processes and evaluates the policy prescriptions available to manage such migration flows. Based on a survey of the available quantitative and qualitative evidence, our study points to the existence of a fairly stable and persistent demand for low skilled labour in the EU, at least in the medium term. As this demand cannot be fully met from within the EU, there is and will remain a strong demand for low skilled migrant workers from non-EU countries. This offers immense scope for traditional labour sending countries like India as well as destination countries in the EU to strengthen the migration–development nexus. Unfortunately, on both sides, there seems to be an absence of a coherent and focused policy for governing migration of low skilled workers. Considering that migration of low skilled workers from India is mainly directed to the Persian Gulf, the study also makes a comparison between the existing immigration policies in EU countries and the Persian Gulf in order to draw relevant policy perspectives. Evolving appropriate policy response in relation to low skilled migration to Europe is also necessary given that a significant share of such workers end up as irregular migrants in transit or at the destination.

Abstract This paper discusses the problem of the recent emigration of highly-skilled Sudanese citizens and sheds light on the mechanism that prompts such emigration. High levels of graduate unemployment coupled with the economic hardship that holds back the economy makes emigration the only alternative for the majority of graduates. As individual investment in education does not pay off in Sudan, and as higher education is still in demand, people get involved in higher education to equip themselves with skills that have viable market potential elsewhere in the world. Despite a consistent proportion of Sudanese emigrants being well educated (i.e. at least secondary education) most leave the country to be employed in low-skilled jobs. “Higher education for emigration” seems to represent the logo of those still demanding higher education and ready to pay for it and this likely represents one of the main challenges to be faced by the Sudanese higher-education system in the near future. Résumé Cette note analyse le problème récent de l'émigration des citoyens soudanais hautement qualifiés et met en lumière les mécanismes à l’origine de ce phénomène. L’émigration est en effet la seule alternative pour la majorité des diplômés devant faire face aux niveaux élevés de chômage et aux difficultés économiques. Comme l'investissement individuel dans l'éducation n'est pas rentable alors que l'enseignement supérieur est lui toujours en demande, les soudanais s’engagent donc dans l'enseignement supérieur en vue d’obtenir des compétences ayant un réel potentiel pour les marchés du travail étrangers. En dépit d'une proportion importante d'émigrants soudanais disposant au moins d’un diplôme secondaire, une majorité quitte le pays pour des emplois peu qualifiés dans les pays de destination. « L'enseignement supérieur en fonction de l'émigration » telle est désormais la devise des soudanais ayant les moyens de s’engager dans l'éducation supérieure. Par conséquent, ce phénomène représente probablement l'un des principaux défis du système d'enseignement supérieur soudanais.

The authors carry out a cross-country assessment of policies aimed to attract and select high-skilled workers. To capture immigration policy systems, they choose nine policy elements that collectively capture many of the key differences between destination countries’ policy stances. These instruments reflect policy categories comprising skill-selective admission policies (shortage lists, job offer requirements, labor market tests, PBS), and post-entry policy instruments (permanency rights, financial incentive schemes). Methodologically, the authors adopt a set of statements against which a 0 or 1 can be assigned to ensure consistency when coding our policy variables.

The Index addresses the admission programmes/policies for temporary and permanent high-skilled workers in 2001. The author presents two sub-indexes and one index: index of policies for temporary high-skilled workers and index for permanent high-skilled workers, and combined index of skilled immigrant competitiveness. Twelve countries are chosen, including the traditional countries of immigration (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States), the major European receiving countries (France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, and United Kingdom), South Africa and Japan. A list of comparative criteria is created for admission policies: Hard numerical caps; Strict labour market test; Extensive labour protections; Enforcement mechanisms; Limited employer portability; Restriction on dependents / working spouse; Limited permanency rights. A four point scale is used with a “4” being highly controlled and a “1” being highly competitive; and there are intermediate rankings of minimally (2 points) and moderately (3 points) controlled. The rankings are based on the addition of all points for each of the elements just described above, but converted into an index with the most “controlled” country given a value of 100.

Libya, a country that gained independence in 1951, has known only two contradictory regimes: a monarchy from 1951-1969, and a revolution since 1969. With oil as its main source of revenue, and after ten years of UN backed-sanctions, in addition to a decade of public sector dominance, Libya suffers from both brain drain and brain waste. The active Libyan market of today, after its return to the international community, and given decades of economic and administrative instability, requires skilled and unskilled labour. Libya’s labour policies have always been motivated by politics. There has not been a labour strategy, and the need for skilled labour has been a constant in a rich country with only six million inhabitants.Libya today is country full of promise that offers opportunities to its own citizens. It is still, however, unable either to contain brain waste, or to stop brain drain, especially in the medical field. The private sector which has been reactivated after years of public sector dominance is hungry for labour and regulation is imminent. Economic activities, in infrastructure and building for example, need the labour market, private and public, to be properly regulated. La Libye, devenue indépendante en 1951, n’a connu que deux régimes opposés : une monarchie de 1951 à 1969 et une révolution depuis 1969. Avec le pétrole comme principale source de revenu, après dix ans de sanctions onusiennes, et une décennie de prédominance du secteur public, la Libye subit à la fois une fuite et un gaspillage des cerveaux. Le marché du travail libyen actuel requiert de la main d’oeuvre qualifiée et non qualifiée depuis son retour sur la scène internationale après des décennies d’instabilité économique et administrative. Les politiques de l’emploi libyennes ont toujours été motivées par la politique. En l’absence de stratégie de l’emploi, le besoin de main d’œuvre est une constante dans ce pays riche pourvu de seulement six millions d’habitants.La Libye d’aujourd’hui est un pays plein de promesses, porteur d’opportunités pour ses citoyens. Elle est cependant encore incapable de réduire le gaspillage des cerveaux et de stopper la fuite des cerveaux, surtout dans le domaine médical. Le secteur privé, réactivé après des décennies de domination publique, a faim de main d’œuvre et la régulation est imminente. Les activités économiques, dans les infrastructures ou le bâtiment par exemple, ont besoin d’un marché du travail, public comme privé, réglementé.

The preference for high-skilled migrants and the relative ambivalence of countries to develop adequate policies for low-skilled migrants is often times accepted without question. The lack of information on the socio-economic impact of these low-skilled migrants on sending and receiving countries thus skews their public image. To challenge this myth of low-preference for the “low-skilled” migrant worker, the paper explores a case study of Indian Punjabi migrants in the Italian dairy industry to show that relevance of these so-called “low-skilled” migrant workers in producing “high-quality” Italian cheese.

This study explores the legal aspects of high-skilled migration to and from Jordan, but it must be remembered that it is difficult to deal with this subject without taking international migration more generally into account. The study is structured in four sections: Jordanian migrant workers in the GCC countries and migrant workers in Jordan – numbers, qualifications and remittances; legal framework pertaining to border-controls in Jordan and the GCC countries; the human rights of migrant workers in Jordan and the GCC countries; and finally the bilateral workforce cooperation agreements between Jordan and Arab receiving countries. Cette étude explore les aspects juridiques de la migration hautement qualifiée de et vers la Jordanie. Il s’agit néanmoins de garder en mémoire qu’il est difficile d’aborder un tel sujet sans tenir compte des migrations internationales dans leur ensemble. L’étude est structurée en quatre parties : les travailleurs jordaniens migrants dans les pays du Conseil de Coopération du Golfe et les travailleurs migrants en Jordanie – effectifs, qualifications et transferts financiers ; le cadre juridique relatif au contrôle des frontières en Jordanie et dans les pays du Golfe ; les droits humains des travailleurs migrants en Jordanie et dans les pays du Golfe ; et enfin, les accords bilatéraux de coopération en matière de main d’œuvre entre la Jordanie et les pays arabes de destination.

This paper provides an analysis of the relevant laws that cover the migration of highly skilled persons who originate from, or settle in, Egypt. Highly skilled foreign nationals with unique professional skills are given advantages (in investment, property ownership for investors and taxation) that make their settlement in Egypt relatively easy when compared to the treatment given to non-skilled foreign workers. Non-skilled workers usually do not obtain work permits, they are employed in the informal sector and thus are not eligible for naturalization. Despite the advantages given to highly skilled foreign migrants, some professions are restricted to Egyptians. In order to deal with overpopulation, Egypt encourages its citizens to emigrate. This can be demonstrated by the tax benefits that the law offers to Egyptian emigrants, their right to retain Egyptian citizenship and confer it upon their children, the exemption of their children from military service if the children have other citizenships, the opportunity of public-sector employees to return to their former place of employment if they decide to return to Egypt, and finally, the negotiation of agreements with foreign governments to improve the status of Egyptian workers overseas as well as to counter organized crime and people smuggling across borders. Résumé Cette note fournit une analyse des lois couvrant la migration des personnes hautement qualifiées originaires d’Egypte ou s’y installant. Les étrangers hautement qualifiés pourvus de compétences uniques bénéficient de privilèges (dans le domaine de l’investissement, de la propriété et de l’imposition) qui rend leur installation plus facile que pour les travailleurs étrangers non qualifiés. Ces derniers n’obtiennent généralement pas de permis de travail, sont employés dans le secteur informel et ne peuvent ainsi accéder à la naturalisation. En dépit des privilèges offerts aux migrants hautement qualifiés, certaines professions demeurent réservées aux nationaux. Pour gérer la surpopulation, l’Egypte encourage ses citoyens à émigrer. Ceci est démontré par divers facteurs, tels que les avantages fiscaux offerts aux émigrés, leur droit de garder leur nationalité et de la transmettre à leurs enfants, l’exemption du service militaire pour leurs enfants dotés d’une autre nationalité, la possibilité pour les employés du secteur public de retrouver leur poste à leur retour en Egypte, et enfin la négociations d’accords bilatéraux visant à améliorer le statut des travailleurs égyptiens à l’étranger, ainsi qu’à lutter contre le crime organisé et le traffic transnational des personnes.

Despite the potentially significant societal and labour market implications of highly-skilled migration policies in Europe, the new dynamics have only been subject to few inquisitive studies in the academic literature, none of them discussing the case of Indian migrants specifically. This paper seeks to close this gap by comparing the national schemes and programmes for highly-skilled migration in two EU Member States that have become increasingly important for Indian migrants, namely the Netherlands and Germany and analysing the newly introduced provisions of the EU Blue Card Directive. The findings will lead to conclusions on whether the implementation of the EU Blue Card Directive renders immigration to the Netherlands and Germany more attractive for highly skilled migrants from India.

La migration de cadres hautement qualifiés est un fait très récent, en Mauritanie. Elle se trouve favorisée par le déphasage flagrant entre le système de formation universitaire et professionnel et le marché du travail. S’y ajoute le chômage massif des diplômés, dans le contexte d’une économie fragile, qui ne crée pas suffisamment d’emplois qualifiés. Ce phénomène, dont on ignore encore avec précision l’ampleur réelle est, également, ignoré par le système juridique. Le droit du travail et les textes applicables en matière de migrations ne prévoient pas de normes particulières, d’incitations ou d’obstacles spécifiques. Par ailleurs, les données quantitatives et qualitatives relatives aux migrations qualifiées ne sont pas suffisamment connues. De même, la question ne fait pas l’objet de débats poussés dans les milieux académiques, ni au sein de la classe politique, susceptibles de permettre d’en mesurer les avantages et les inconvénients pour le pays. Aussi, n’y a-t-il pas encore de politique nationale en la matière, le pays subissant l’évolution sans chercher à l’orienter. En dépit de l’inexistence de dispositions juridiques spécifiques et de l’insuffisance des données, la présente note se propose, au terme d’une analyse du contexte national et du cadre général des migrations qualifiées, de formuler des propositions afin d’encadrer celles-ci et d’en maximiser le profit, pour le pays, tout en minorant ses éventuels effets néfastes. Highly-skilled migration is a recent phenomenon in Mauritania. It has been encouraged by a growing gap between the university system and the labour market, as well as significant levels of unemployment among the highly qualified within a weak economic environment which does not create enough employment. This phenomenon is difficult to evaluate and is not affected by law. Existing regulations do not provide rules, incentives or hindrances to this kind of migration. Besides, quantitative or qualitative data related to highly-skilled migration is not well enough understood. The issue has not really been discussed in academic or political circles, nor have its positive or negative effects on the local economy been evaluated. As a consequence, the country has experienced highly-skilled migration without trying to control it, without any national policy and without even clear priorities. Despite the absence of legal provisions and a general lack of data, this paper analyses the national context and the general framework of highly-skilled migration and presents some suggestions for framing highly-skilled migration in a way that could maximize positive effects and minimize negative ones.

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 project asks how governments of migrant sending countries can influence the rights of their low skilled migrant workers in receiving countries. The project approaches this question from both the sending and the receiving country side; looking at factors that determine when and how sending states intervene and what determines the responses from receiving countries. The surplus of aspiring migrants and economic importance of remittances would suggest sending states have little bargaining power. Single case studies however suggest that some nevertheless intervene. A comprehensive overview of the drivers of immigration and emigration policy will result in a set of hypotheses. A survey of policy makers in sending countries will generate an overview of interventions by sending country governments. The project’s core is a systematic comparative case study of six sending countries with partly overlapping receiving countries and three of these receiving countries. The sending country cases are three sets of two countries in which migrant remittances constitute a similar share of GDP but involvement with the rights of their workers abroad differ; the Philippines, Senegal, India, Ecuador, Morocco and Vietnam. The receiving countries are South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Italy. These countries vary strongly in the rights for migrant workers and the level of cooperation with sending states. QCA and process tracing will be used to assess the hypotheses. The project is innovative in 1) providing a systematic analysis of a larger number of cases including countries rarely covered in comparative studies on migrant rights, 2) examining of the actions of both sending and receiving countries, and 3) taking the trade-off between migrant numbers and rights into account. The project will push theory development forward by connecting theoretical fields and expanding geographic scope. It is policy-relevant by providing further insight into how the rights of migrant workers can be improved.

This paper analyzed the highly skilled migration patterns in Egypt and its impact on Egyptian development. The main question herein, is whether highly skilled migration patterns in the case of Egypt induces development or underdevelopment. The study found out that highly skilled migration patterns from Egypt, to the OECD and the Gulf, contribute positively to the development process of Egypt. Highly skilled migrants, find more employment opportunities outside of Egypt, whose labor market is incapable of absorbing high numbers of highly skilled individuals. Moreover, highly skilled migrants are capable of sending a large amount of remittances, amounting to 4 percent of the Egyptian GDP. Last but not least, highly skilled migration is an important contributor to "brain circulation", which increases the entrepreneurial skills of a large number of Egyptian migrants. Concerning highly-skilled immigrants in Egypt, their presence is of no threat to the Egyptian development process; on the contrary, their presence produces more small-scale businesses, which in turn creates employment in the Egyptian labour market. The Egyptian government's policies encourage migration of the highly skilled, through multilateral and bilateral agreements, and through the creation of training centers for prospected highly skilled migrants. However, these policies are not sufficient, and should be accompanied with more bilateral agreements both in the OECD and Gulf Countries, which precipitate more skill match-making between the supply side of the Egyptian highly-skilled migrants and the demand side of the OECD and Gulf Countries. Résumé Cet article analyse la relation entre migration hautement qualifiée et développement dans le cas de l’Egypte. Il a pour objectif de déterminer si la migration des travailleurs hautement qualifiés a un impact positif sur le développement du pays, ou si au contraire elle a pour conséquence de renforcer le sous-développement. Cette étude conclut que l’émigration des travailleurs hautement qualifiés vers les pays de l’OCDE et du Golfe contribue positivement au processus de développement de l’Egypte. En effet, les travailleurs hautement qualifiés trouvent davantage d’opportunités professionnelles hors d’Egypte, dont le marché du travail n’est pas en mesure d’offrir à chacun un poste à la hauteur de ses compétences. De plus, les expatriés hautement qualifiés effectuent des transferts de fonds importants qui représentent au total jusqu’à 4% du PIB Egyptien. Enfin, la migration hautement qualifiée alimente la « circulation des cerveaux », qui accroit substantiellement les compétences entrepreneuriales de nombreux migrants Egyptiens. En ce qui concerne les immigrés hautement qualifiés résidant en Egypte, l’étude conclut qu’ils ne constituent pas une menace au processus de développement de l’économie nationale. Au contraire, leur présence renforce le tissu de petites entreprises, ce qui en retour participe à la création d’emplois sur le marché du travail égyptien. Les politiques mises en place par le gouvernement égyptien visent à encourager la migration des travailleurs hautement qualifiés, par le biais d’accords multilatéraux et bilatéraux, et à travers la création de centres de formation destinés aux migrants potentiels. Toutefois, ces initiatives demeurent insuffisantes. Elles devraient s’accompagner davantage d’accords bilatéraux avec les pays de l’OCDE et du Golfe, ayant pour objectif d’améliorer la correspondance des compétences entre l’offre des travailleurs égyptiens et la demande des pays d’accueil.