Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Erhan Artuç, Frédéric Docquier, Çaglar Özden and Christopher Parsons introduce the first global overview of human capital mobility in IMI's latest working paper.

The movement of highly skilled people is one of the most topical aspects of international migration. Most often, discussions of high-skilled mobility evoke considerations of ‘brain drain’ – migration from poorer to wealthier countries – ignoring movement to and between developing countries.

The authors of this paper, Erhan Artuç, Frédéric Docquier, Çaglar Özden and Christopher Parsons, argue that this oversight not only restricts many important avenues of research, but given the lack of immigration and emigration flow data by skill level, also prevents countries from assessing the effectiveness of their immigration, education and labour market policies.

This paper aims to address this gap by introducing for the first time, a global overview of human capital mobility. The authors build upon a new data collection, identify the key determinants of international migration, and impute missing data using a novel estimation process. The authors then refine a set of brain drain indicators to generate estimates of both gross and net human capital levels across the world.

Similar stories

Working Paper: Immigration policy effects – A conceptual framework

Liv Bjerre provides a conceptual framework for the analysis of immigration policy effects by arguing that immigration policies have varying effects on different categories of immigrants whether they are regular immigrants, asylum seekers or irregular immigrants

Return Migration in Africa

IMI Researcher, Dr. Marie-Laurence Flahaux together with Dr. Bruno Shoumaker and Dr. Thierry Eggerickx edit a new issue of 'Space, Populations, Societies' which seeks to explore the understudied aspects of return migration in Africa

Working Paper: Hopes and fears of migrants’ contribution to political change, a Tunisian case study

Marieke van Houte explores complexities of political change in relation to mobility and immobility through a fascinating Tunisian case study that challenges conventional notions that transnational political engagements contribute to democratization

Exploring domestic & diasporic non-government responses to the Liberian Ebola Crisis

New article published in the academic journal, African Affairs by IMI Senior Research Officer Robtel Neajai Pailey

Legal invisibility was the best thing to happen to me

Senior Research Officer Robtel Neajai Pailey shares her experience of living as an undocumented migrant in the US for 14 years in a remarkable piece for Al Jazeera

Call for papers for new journal Migration and Society

The first issue of the journal focuses on Hospitality and hostility towards migrants: Global perspectives