From brain exchange to brain gain: policy implications for the UK of recent trends in skilled migration from developing countries

The focus of this paper is on highly skilled migration to the UK from developing countries. It uses existing UK data sets relating to stocks and flows of skilled migrants to identify the changing composition and origin of people from developing countries migrating to the UK. It examines trends in return migration and questions why return migration to developing countries is so low as this group of skilled migrants is particularly important to the future development of their countries of origin and considers how skilled migration is likely to develop in the future by looking at the main forces shaping international flows and the trends emerging in other developed countries. The paper then turns to consider prescriptive measures, including ways in which the UK might collect better data on skilled migration from developing countries and the key research questions that merit attention. The final section discusses possible policy actions which the UK government could take relating to skilled migration from developing countries.

This report is part of a series of studies conducted by the International Labour Office under the DFID-sponsored project on 'Skilled labour migration (the 'brain drain') from developing countries: analysis of impact and policy issues'. Available reports are indexed from TD/TNC 86.109 to TD/TNC 86.119. Show less