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Drivers and dynamics of high-skilled migration

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Three-year project 2012–2015

Key focus on mobility of students and academics

Understanding the drivers and dynamics of high‐skilled migration, and the effect of policy on this type of migration.

This project aims to improve understanding of the drivers and dynamics of high‐skilled migration, and in particular the role of policy in this type of migration. A key focus is on the mobility of students and academics within the global South and North, including increasing migration to developing countries.

The project comprises of international surveys among students and longitudinal data analysis of migration flows.

High-skilled and student migration are among the fastest growing migration phenomena in the world, but we have little knowledge about the effectiveness of policies to attract the ‘best and brightest’.

IMI will collect and make available to the public unique data, and generate evidence-based research to the benefit of the global research and policy community.

This project is part of and complements DEMIG (Determinants of International Migration), a major IMI-led research project aiming to generate new theoretical and empirical insights into the way states and policies shape migration processes in their interaction with other migration determinants in receiving and sending countries.

Make an enquiry about the drivers and dynamics of high-skilled migration project

 

 

Our team

Selected publications

Funding

This project is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a philanthropic, not-for-profit grantmaking institution based in New York City. Established in 1934 by Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., then-President and Chief Executive Officer of the General Motors Corporation, the Foundation makes grants in support of original research and education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and economic performance.

Related research themes

The effectiveness of migration policies is highly contested. We examine the changing role of origin and destination states in migration processes by analysing their explicit attempts to intervene through migration policies and the impact of other policy areas, such as trade and taxation. Our research helps to understand why policies often fail to meet their stated objectives.
Policy and states
Development processes shape human mobility in fundamental and often counter-intuitive ways. We examine how internal and international migration is driven by wider social, economic, technological and political transformations. Our research challenges assumptions that development will reduce migration and the sedentary foundations of much research and policy.
Drivers and dynamics