Where Exactly Do All The Talented People Immigrate?

In 2016, then U.S President Barack Obama revealed that all of the six scientists and researchers from the U.S who had won Nobel Prizes were immigrants. It came as a surprise Global Talent Flows to the whole world. But a closer inspection reveals that it is only natural. After all, it is one of the four countries home to the world’s high-skilled immigrants.

Apart from the U.S, the other three countries where talented people globally flocked to are Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Programs like the global talent independent program work exceptionally well to provide a chance for skilled people to migrate to places where their talent can be best used. Australia is one such nation that continuously works to attract talented people from particular industries to settle there permanently.

Why Do Skilled People Migrate?

According to research, namely Global Talent Flows, 28 million high-skilled migrants reside in countries that come under OECD. (members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) The four countries mentioned above lead the race as those countries where most people wish to migrate and do so.

The topic of the immigration of talented people is a controversial issue. It is said that the migration of skilled people from their home country is a loss for it. But there is also a positive side to it. The people who migrate through programs like the global talent independent program establish connections to global knowledge sources. Many of them even return to their home country with greater human and social capital levels.

This rise in the number of highly skilled migrants to such countries can be boiled down to the enhanced efforts of the policymakers in these countries to attract talent and retain them. Yet another reason why people migrate to these nations is that their home country has limited educational opportunities. They also have limited financial resources that are necessary to train workers who have emigrated.

Caglar Ozden, a World Bank economist who was involved in the study mentioned above gave a reason behind people leaving their home country to migrate to places like the U.S and Australia. He said that it is because people do not like their living situation. Hence, if a country improves, develops itself, and enhances the general life of educated people, they will stay in their home country itself.

Migration of Women

Women are also at the forefront of this migration surge. Between 1990 to 2010, the number of women migrating to the U.S, U.K, Canada, and Australia grew from 5.7 to 14.4 million. The most amount of migration of high-skilled women happened from Africa and Asia.

The reasons for such significant levels of migration from both these continents are gender inequality and labour market challenges. High-skilled women are thus actively utilising programs like the global talent independent program. Did you know that almost half of the international migrants are women?

Women who are highly educated do impact the social and economic development of countries. But there is a need to assimilate these women into the broader cultural fabric of the nations where they migrate.

The Road Ahead

The worldwide competition for skills will continue to remain a cut-throat and highly unequal one. Skilled migration is here to stay. What can be likely seen in the future is the evolution of different forms of high-skilled migration.