High value migrants: talent mobility and international development.

• Author: Solimano, Andres

THE TRAVAILS AND VICISSITUDE OF THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION of poor people often make the headlines of the popular press. However, there is another side to the overall migration process that can be termed as the mobility of "high-value migrants". This process is far less numerous, faces easier immigration rules in developed countries and can lead to a greater economic potential in the development of new technologies and the creation of business, as well as the international transfer of knowledge and best practices. The process can be recognized by the movement across national boundaries of technology experts, software and hardware developers, scientists, entrepreneurs, international managers, etc. In a joint project between the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) in Helsinki, Finland, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Carribbean (UN-ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile, this process has been described as the international mobility of talent. The project has studied the nature, causes and consequences of such mobility for international development.

Talent--an individual's inner capacity to develop ideas and concepts, some with high economic value--is a critical engine for growth and development. It is an area in which developing countries usually lag behind developed nations and where development gaps are more evident. The "human factor" is critical to the success or failure of many endeavours. Emerging economies, such as China, India, the Russian Federation and Poland and to a lesser extent some Latin American countries, are becoming an important source of talented people like engineers and technical experts, some of whom have doctorate degrees from top-level universities.

Part of the new talent in developing countries goes to live and work in developed countries, typically in the United States, the United Kingdom and other nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This creates a concern over the ensuing loss of scarce human capital that would be deployed for the development of the knowledge economy in home countries. However, talented individuals also return home after graduation or after years of work in the host country, often bringing with them new knowledge, technologies, capital and contacts that are all very useful for national development. The traditional concept of "brain drain" must therefore be re-examined in light of...