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Rich countries woo highly skilled migrants

Rich countries are increasingly competing to recruit highly skilled immigrants to meet labour shortages in key industries like IT. But are poor countries losing out? While many countries are trying to limit the number of asylum seekers permanently settled on their shores, they are simultaneously trying to increase the number of people with specific skills and high levels of education and skills whom they want to encourage to move there.

In Britain, for example, around two-thirds of foreign workers who came into the UK in 2002 (103,000 out of 160,000) are classified as being in professional or managerial occupations, a considerable increase compared with 10 years ago. And while definitions of what constitutes "highly skilled" varies, using the broad yardstick of being educated to degree level and above, increasing numbers of university graduates from developing countries are heading for greener pastures abroad.

According to Professor Richard Black of the Sussex Centre for Migration Research, a substantial proportion of African graduates now live outside the continent. One estimate suggests that 60% of Gambia's university graduates, 25% of graduates from Sierra Leone, and 10% from Kenya, are now US residents.

Who is coming?

Highly skilled migration has always existed, of course. But until recently, it mainly consisted of high- powered bankers and multinational company executives who were seconded from one rich country to another. Now new sectors have become more prominent, and developing countries more important. The IT industry, especially in its Silicon Valley heartland in the US, has become dependent on Indian and Chinese software engineers. And the new workers are increasingly coming on a temporary or contingent basis, even in professions like accounting, with shorter assignments abroad and no guarantee of a return.

Competing countries

According to Professor John Salt of University College London's Migration Research Unit, competition between countries over attracting skilled migrants has become more intense. The US and the UK have created special immigration schemes to attract them, competing with existing schemes that have existed for some years in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

In Germany, a new "green card" scheme has been introduced to recruit foreign IT specialists and to train 250,000 domestic specialists by 2005. The new approach involves the governments working closely with employers to work out where labour shortages exist, highly tailored to specific requirements by industry - and then to fast-track admissions on a temporary basis.

California IT employers, for example, pushed hard for an expansion of the US H1B temporary visa scheme, which at its peak admitted 193,000 workers per year. Less successful have been attempts to attract entrepreneurs, with many countries offering free immigration for business people with assets over $1m.

Questions

Q1. Which category of foreign workers are needed in rich countries?

Q2. Why are the skills of foreign employees needed?

Q3. What are the cost-benefit implications of bringing foreign workers to work in rich nations? How does this situation affect the future of developing nations?

Q4. What contribution might foreign employees bring to workplace diversity in rich countries?