International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article   Over the past fifteen years there has been greater interest in the study of highly skilled migrants. This interest can be partially explained by Western dependence on foreign-born experts and the corresponding growth of highly skilled migration within migration streams as well as the consolidation of international and supranational regulatory structures ( Cornelius et al. 2001 ; Iredale 2001 ; Lavenex 2006 ). Recent research on the changing nature of work suggests that international flows of highly skilled labor are increasing and that highly skilled workers already move fairly freely between many countries. There are also many political forces influencing the movement of skilled people around the globe: the continued efforts of states to address domestic labor shortages and restock through preferential immigration policies and international recruitment drives are ever more important. This trend has contributed to the development of a small but significant body of literature on professionals and transnational migration. For social scientists, the unprecedented movement of highly skilled people across the globe calls into question earlier approaches to the study of migration. Where international highly skilled workers were treated in the classical sociological literature on migration as a small population that reflected both the potential for human capital ... log in or subscribe to read full text