Why we wrote this book
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Poor- to rich-country skilled emigration: A large,
growing, and relatively neglected resource flow
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Complex affects on development—certainly not all
bad
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But the pendulum may have swung too far
Structure of the book
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Document the large human capital flows and the
rich-country immigration policies driving them
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Analysis of development effects using a multichannel framework: prospect, absence, diaspora,
and return
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Consideration of a menu of policy responses
Absent human capital
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Extremely high skilled emigration rates from
vulnerable regions
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But even where numbers seem small, it is often
the best and brightest that are leaving
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Special problem of the medical brain drain
A rising demand for skill
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Clear trend toward more skill-focused immigration
policies across industrialized countries
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Driven by competitive pressures in a global,
knowledge-based economy . . . likely to intensify
as populations age
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The US exception?
The burden of absence
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Standard competitive models miss much
of the cost of skilled emigration
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More complex effects
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Specialized skills
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Local Knowledge spillovers
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Fiscal effects
Absent institution builders
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Supply of individuals with the drive and talent to
design and staff key public institutions
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Demand better institutions
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Breaking the vicious cycle
Institutional failure
Driving people out
Absent entrepreneurs
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Choice facing individuals with talent and initiative:
Emigrate or innovate
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Importance of filling key unmet product/input
needs
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Adoption of better technologies and organizations
But there are also potential benefits
for development
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{
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Prospect effects
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Increased human capital investment
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Induced institutional and policy reform
Diaspora effects
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Trade, investment, and remittances
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Reputational intermediaries
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Social remittances
Return effects
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Return with skills, ideas, savings, connections
Policies to make migration more
development friendly
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Welfare of migrants and receiving countries
matter . . . However, our focus is on sending
countries
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Policy responses from rich countries, poor
countries, and the international community
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Pragmatic approach . . . Focus on “sharing of the
spoils”
Controls
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Important not to make the international migration regime
even more illiberal
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But there is a need for a development perspective in
addition to a competitiveness perspective in setting
immigration policy
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Advocate for better balances of skilled/unskilled immigration
and permanent/temporary movements
Compensation
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Compensatory financial and human capital
flows e.g. “head-hunter” type fees to
source institution
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Worth revisiting the “Bhagwati tax” as the
price of continued citizenship
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Modest tax on migrant’s income
Creation
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Fix the institutional failures that drive
talented people out of poor countries
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Particular need to focus on higher
education reforms
Connections
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Encourage circulatory migration
z
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Lower transaction costs of sending remittances
z
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E.g.Portable Social Security benefits and international
totalization agreements
E.g. Use national post office networks
Dual citizenship
International cooperation
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More liberal (circulatory) migration for
professionals through Mode 4 of GATS
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Need for an international migration organization
for data collection and dissemination
Summing up
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Put a neglected issue on the development agenda
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Shift emphasis to potential costs of skilled
migration, especially for institutional development
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Look for ways to make the international migration
regime more development friendly without making
it more illiberal