High-skilled migration

Löhne werden nicht nur von den individuellen Eigenschaften von Arbeitnehmern und Arbeitgebern bestimmt, auch lokale Gegebenheiten spielen eine Rolle. Dabei ist insbesondere der regionale Anteil an hochqualifizierten Arbeitskräften von Bedeutung. Hochqualifizierte tragen zur technischen Weiterentwicklung bei und regen den Wissensaustausch an. Dadurch steigern sie nicht nur ihre eigene Produktivität, sondern auch die anderer Beschäftigter in ihrem Umfeld. Eine gesteigerte Produktivität hat wiederum höhere Löhne zur Folge. Innerhalb des Forschungsprojekts wird daher untersucht, wie sich der regionale Zuzug (Brain-Gain) und Fortzug (Brain-Drain) Hochqualifizierter auf die Löhne ansässiger Arbeiternehmerinnen und Arbeitnehmer auswirkt. Ob ein regionaler Brain-Drain durch einen gleich großen Brain-Gain ausgeglichen werden kann, hängt von unterschiedlichen Effekten ab: Einerseits bereichern Hochqualifizierte, die als Wissensträger neu in eine Region kommen, den lokalen Wissenspool in besonderem Maße, was für einen relativ höheren Effekt von Brain-Gain im Vergleich zu Brain-Drain spricht. Andererseits basiert der Wissensaustausch stark auf sozialen Netzwerken. Geht man davon aus, dass Wegziehende verhältnismäßig große Netzwerke verlassen und Zuziehende zu Beginn verhältnismäßig kleine Netzwerke vorfinden, könnten wiederum die Effekte durch Brain-Drain überwiegen. Im Zuge des Forschungsprojekts werden die genauen Effekte anhand von regionalen Mikrodaten mit ökonometrischen Verfahren bestimmt. Projektziel Das Forschungsprojekt untersucht Effekte auf Löhne, welche durch den Zuzug (Brain-Gain) und den Fortzug (Brain-Drain) von hochqualifizierten Arbeitern hervorgerufen werden.

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 proposal presents a study of the EXODUS of exceptionally gifted individuals due to the increased utilization of short-term contracts. The primary objective is to study the impact of Italian labour market reforms, specifically those related to the regulation and utilization of short-term employment contracts, on the departure of skilled workers towards other countries, which typically offer more and better opportunities (brain drain). Theoretically, the utilization of short-term contracts could help increase labor force participation, employment, efficiency and labour market opportunities. However, if not regulated in integration with the specific institutional framework, short-term contracts might generate undesired effects. By promoting adverse selection, driving the better workers away from the mother country as the less productive workers take up short-term contracts, short-term contracts might actually increase the brain drain. The purpose of EXODUS is to investigate the validity of these concerns and to analyze the way short-term contracts affect the brain drain phenomenon. In particular, EXODUS will focus on investigating the employment condition and behavioral choices of a specific category of workers: young individuals with a high level of education.

"Das Hauptziel des Projektes besteht darin, die wirtschaftliche Integration von hoch gebildeten Immigranten aus der ehemaligen Sowjetunion in vier Zielländern zu vergleichen: USA, Kanada, Deutschland und Israel. Diese vier Länder stellten die hauptsächlichen Zielländer der Immigranten aus der ehem. Sowjetunion seit ihrem Niedergang 1989 dar. Jedes Aufnahmeland repräsentiert ein unterschiedliches Immigrationsregime, das sich sowohl in der Auswahl der Zuwanderer ins Einreiseland, als auch in der Bereitstellung der Art und Höhe der Hilfe und Unterstützung der Immigranten unterscheidet. Der Fokus der Integration der Immigranten aus einem Herkunftsland in verschiedenen Zielländern bieten uns die einmalige Gelegenheit die Auswirkungen der Immigrationspolitik und den Aufnahmekontext auf die ökonomische Integration der hoch gebildeten Immigranten zu untersuchen. Die geplante Untersuchung wird Folgendes erforschen: a) wie und warum hoch gebildete Immigranten ihr Zielland auswählen; b) die Konsequenzen der Selbstauswahl der Immigranten für ihren Erfolg auf dem Arbeitsmarkt und c) die Rolle des Aufnahmekontextes jedes Landes (Sozialpolitik und Arbeitsmarkteigenschaften) in Bezug auf die ökonomische Assimilation von hoch gebildeten Immigranten. Frau Kogan führt das Projekt an der Universität Bamberg weiter."

Objective: The objective of the study is to design an EU-wide scheme to attract high-skilled non-EU resident entrepreneurial innovators, and to facilitate the creation and development of high-potential companies in Europe. The study fits to the EC’s objective to boost innovation, growth and investments by unleashing the EU’s full capacities and competitiveness, while addressing the consequences of demographic ageing and offsetting skills shortages in the continent. Summary: The study will recommend a scheme to attract 20,000 migrant entrepreneurs per year to the EU through the creation of an electronic platform of services to potential migrant entrepreneurs, possible financial support and a promotion campaign. The direct objectives of the schemes are to facilitate access to the EU for non-EU nationals (visa scheme), create incentives (including linking to financial support), facilitate access to EU ecosystems, incubator schemes and private funding (via the platform) as well as to inform aspiring entrepreneurs. The study will include amongst other an assessment of existing (public and semi-public) initiatives in following EU Member States: Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom, and Spain. Moreover, it will benchmark these against schemes in a number of non-EU countries with successful entrepreneurial support initiatives.

Abstract Due an aging demographic profile, low labour mobility and a mismatch between education and labour market demand, it is has been argued that the EU region will face a scarcity of highly skilled talent in the near future. Many EU member states recognize that maintaining and increasing their present high level of economic wealth and international competitiveness will require that this scarcity is addressed. The Netherlands and Germany have ongoing programmes to attract talent from countries with high availability of skilled human resources. India is a prime focus for both these countries seeking to attract ‘knowledge migrants’. The project Nyenrode Business University (Netherlands) Kienbaum (Germany) and The Executive Consulting Group (Netherlands) have joined hands to conduct an extensive research study on “Enhancing European Competitiveness by Leveraging Highly Skilled Indian Professionals” over the period of 4 years. The research study will focus on investigating Indian professionals and strategies to attract them; investigating expectations of Indian professionals towards the employment relationship with EU organizations (the “psychological contract approach” to the employment relationship forms the theoretical framework of this topic) and translating research findings into policies and instruments and disseminating knowledge to industry The innovative character of the study is in the production of scientific knowledge with reference to Indian highly-skilled professionals and to quantify the possible benefits of Indian talent for the European Union. The translation of the scientific knowledge into managerial implications, policies and tools will provide a significant practical contribution to European industry. Industry-Academic partnership Through the partnership, all three partners will interact extensively and share their knowledge and experience on this subject. Nyenrode will be responsible for the core academic activities in the research.

Soziale Ungleichheit wurde bisher ausschließlich zwischen oder innerhalb von Nationalstaaten untersucht. Als Folge von Globalisierungsprozessen können soziale Lagen immer weniger auf einen klar umgrenzten Raum bezogen werden. Das Projekt geht der These einer transnationalen Klassenbildung am Beispiel von hochqualifizierten Migrant/innen nach. Ihre soziale Lage entfaltet sich im Spannungsfeld zwischen einer globalen Ökonomie, die ihr kulturelles Kapital weltweit anschlussfähig werden lässt, und der nationalstaatlichen Organisation der Politik, die der Herausbildung einer transnationalen Klassenlage entgegensteht. So sind auch hochqualifizierte Migrant/innen im Zugang zu nationalen Räumen ungleich gestellt, je nachdem, ob sie einem reichen oder armen Land, einer statushohen oder einer symbolisch delegitimierten Gruppe zugerechnet werden. Die objektive und subjektive Strukturiertheit einer transnationalen Lage wird mittels qualitativer Interviews erfasst, die durch standardisierte Fragebögen ergänzt werden. Durch systematische Vergleiche zwischen Experten/innen, die von deutschen Organisationen in Entwicklungsländer entsandt werden, IT-Frachkräften, die unter der sog. Grenncard-Regelung angeworben werden, und westafrikanischen Akademiker/innen, die in Süfafrika arbeiten, wird die Heterogenität transnationaler sozialer Lagen erfasst. Sollten trotz maximaler Kontraste ähnliche Strukturierungen überwiegen, wäre dies ein Beleg für die Bildung transnationaler Klassenlagen.

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.