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1、ISSUES AND OPTIONS FOR ENHANCING THE INTERNATIONAL MOBILITY OF RESEARCHERSbyGraeme HugoFederation FellowProfessor of Geographyand Director of the National Centre for SocialApplications of GISThe University of AdelaidePart of this paper was presented to the OECD Committee for Scientific and Technolog
2、ical Policy (CSTP) and Steering and Funding of Research Institutions (SFRI) Workshop on The International Mobility of Researchers, IEA Paris, 28 March 2007April 2008INTRODUCTIONResearchers have long been a very mobile group, working within international labour markets and having strongly developed i
3、nternational networks. However, the international mobility of researchers has reached unprecedented levels in the contemporary world due to two developments. Firstly with the emergence of knowledge-based economies there has been recognition that the key to national prosperity is maximising the natio
4、nal stock of human capital, particularly the brainpower which provides innovation and major breakthroughs in advancing knowledge. This has led to an unprecedented global quest for talent (Kuptsch and Fong 2006) in which scientists and researchers are among the most eagerly sought after. Secondly, th
5、e reduction in the friction of distance and cost on travel and international flows of people, information, money and goods has made increased migration between nations more possible than ever before. In the European context Morano-Foadi (2005, 134) has argued:For many, mobility is not so much a choi
6、ce as a necessity in science careers either due to the lack of employment opportunities or because progression demands acceptance of mobility by researchers.Hence while much attention is focused on a flow of talented researchers from south to north nations, in fact there is heavy interaction between
7、 OECD nations.The dominant discourse regarding this migration in the past has been the so-called brain drain phenomenon whereby development in origin countries is constrained by the loss of human capital so that the gap between developed and developing nations widens. This model presumes the emigrat
8、ion of researchers and other skilled workers and involves a definitive, permanent relocation and total loss of the brainpower of the emigrant researchers for the origin country. However, there has been a paradigm shift in global international migration thinking from one in which permanent relocation
9、 of migrants has been replaced as the dominant form of migration to transnationalism. The latter suggests that in the contemporary world while permanent migration occurs it is the two-way movements and circulation between origin and destination and the linkages developed and maintained by movers wit
10、h their origins which are the defining features (Faist 2000; Levitt 2001). It is argued here that this transnational migration of researchers provides potential for both origin and destination to benefit from the new mobility of researchers. This paper explores the range of issues which arise from t
11、his new movement as well as the opportunities which arise from the mobility of researchers with specific reference to Australia.The paper begins with a brief discussion of the contemporary trends in global migration which impinge on researcher mobility. All nations experience both an inflow and outf
12、low of researchers and there are a number of issues relating to both inflows and outflows. The ease of international travel and exponential improvements in information and communication technology have made it possible for researchers to maintain close, strong, immediate and intimate contacts with t
13、heir origin countries to an extent that has never before been possible. Expatriate researchers can contribute to their home countries not only by eventually returning to their homeland but also while they are still living abroad. This is achieved both through regular return visits but especially by
14、continuous virtual return migration via modern information and community technology. The final section of the paper discusses some of the policy interventions which can be initiated by governments to enhance the advantages which they can gain from researcher mobility. In the global context of massiv
15、ely increased mobility of researchers there are increasing challenges to governments to achieve the right balance between training researchers, recruitment of researchers from foreign countries and retention of Australian researchers tempted to move to a foreign country (Wood 2004, viii). However, i
16、t is argued here that there is another dimension to add to this mix to what extent can governments capitalise on the human capital of native researchers they have lost to foreign countries by drawing on their social capital to remain engaged with their home country?THE NEW GLOBAL MIGRATIONThere are
17、a number of features of contemporary international migration systems which are of particular salience when considering the mobility of researchers. There has undoubtedly been an increase in the scale, complexity and diversity of migration. Whereas for much of the postwar period only a minority of na
18、tions were influenced in a major way by international migration, it is now an important process in almost all nations (United Nations 2006a). In particular the movement from less developed to more developed nations has increased. Figure 1 shows the distribution of the countries of birth of the 58mil
19、lion persons residing in OECD nations in 2000 who had been born in non-OECD nations. The dispersed pattern across Africa, Asia and South America is clearly in evidence. At the 2000 round of censuses there were around 65 million migrants from south countries in north countries (United NationsFigure 1
20、:Persons Born in South Nations Enumerated in OECD Nations at the 2000 Round of CensusesSource:OECD data base on immigrants and expatriates2006b). However, this significantly underestimates the amount of south-north movement because, as was mentioned in the previous section, there has been a shift aw
21、ay from a dominance of permanent migration in the system and a tremendous increase in temporary movements of one kind or another.The increase in mobility has embraced a wide range of groups. The previous predominance of males has given way to a more or less equal balance of males and females. While
22、the new migration has involved large numbers of unskilled and skilled migrants, Castles and Miller (1998) point to an increasing bifurcation in global migration patterns. On the one hand the mobility of skilled migrants has been facilitated by nations allowing them to enter readily while on the othe
23、r unskilled migrants are increasingly confronted by barriers erected by potential destination nations. Accordingly, the migration is particularly selective of highlyFigure 2:Immigrant and Emigrant Population Aged 15+ with Tertiary Education in OECD CountriesSource:Dumont and Lemaitre 2005skilled per
24、sons, especially that from south to north nations. Dumont and Lemaitre (2005, 17) demonstrated that for all south nations, emigration to OECD nations was highly selective of the highly skilled. Some 88 percent of immigrants from less developed countries in OECD nations have secondary or higher level
25、s of education. Figure 2 shows the number of highly skilled immigrants in each OECD nation in 2002 and indicates that the numbers are greatest in the US, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, France and Germany. The diagram also shows that there is a significant skilled emigration out of these nations a
26、s well so that the net migration is smaller than the gross volume of movement, especially in some countries like the United Kingdom.One area of concern in brain drain migration relates to the increasing numbers of students from less developed countries who migrate to OECD nations to study but who su
27、bsequently remain in those countries after graduation (Tremblay 2004). Figure 3 shows theFigure 3:International Mobile Students by Region of Study, 1975-2004Source:UNESCO 2006, 34increasing scale of international student mobility and the dominance of OECD nations as destinations, although south-sout
28、h student migration is increasing. It is estimated that around 2percent of the worlds 100 million university students are enrolled outside their country of birth and citizenship. Most of the latter are south-north migrants with the largest origins being India and China (Migration News, April 2005).
29、The United States remains the pre-eminent destination with 586,000 foreign university students in 2002 although its dominance may be eroding due to increasingly aggressive marketing of international education as an export industry by other countries, especially the English speaking nations like the
30、United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (Migration News, January 2005). Figure 4 shows the large proportions of PhD students in OECD nations which are now made up of foreign, especially south-origin students.South-north student migration is potentially a contributor to the development effo
31、rt at home because many students are able to work at their destination and remit money home, through knowledge transfer and the enhancement of national human resources when they return after completing their studies. In reality, however, it often has become a net loss to development in origin countr
32、ies. On the one hand there is a significant south-north flow of money for fees and living costs with the total paid to host nations each year by foreign students being US$30 billion (Migration News, April 2005). On the other there is a growing nexus between south-north student migration and permanen
33、t settlement in north countries. Many student migrants see their movement as the first stage to settlement while several OECD nations have immigration regulations which favour recruitment of these students as they are seen as ideal migrants, having qualifications recognised at the destination and fi
34、rst-hand experience of the destination country labour and housing markets and living situations. Moreover, the host nation often hasnt paid for their training. The growing linkages between student migration and permanent settlement is a major component in the increasing incidence of south-north skil
35、led migration.Figure 4:Foreign PhD Students as a Percentage of Total Enrolment, 2000Source:Trewin 2004, 71Until recently the predominant discourse on south-north migration has been of the high degree of selectivity of that migration which has drained poor nations of their most talented residents and
36、 hence exacerbated the constraints which low levels of human capital have imposed on development in those countries. It has been only in recent years that there has been a counter view stressing some of the positive impacts of migration on origin areas. Positive views (World Bank 2006; United Nation
37、s 2006b; Global Commission on International Migration 2005) of the impact of international migration upon development have been driven by a new appreciation of the scale and impact of remittances. Diaspora-led development in origin nations incorporates a much wider range of impacts than remittances
38、but there is little doubt that in development organisations like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, remittances are the centre of attention (Terry and Wilson 2005). Much of the migration and development discourse focuses on the scale and impact of remittances. However, there has been rea
39、lisation that the developmental effects of migration are more complex. The networks which are often set up by migrants between their destination and origin countries can be conduits for more than remittances and the developmental implications of these other flows need to be considered. As Lucas (200
40、1, i) points out there is a growing recognition that a highly skilled diaspora may play several important roles in promoting development at home. This is achieved through the diaspora promoting Foreign Direct Investment, acting as bridgeheads for export of home produced goods, acting as a conduit fo
41、r knowledge transfer or through their return migration.A recent analysis (Ioannidis 2004) analysed the countries of birth of 1,523 highly cited scientists. Almost a third (31.9 percent) resided in a nation other than that of their birth. Migration was more prominent among some research fields (e.g.
42、mathematics, computer science, economics/business and physics) than others (social sciences, immunology and clinical medicine). Three quarters of the migrants had immigrated to the United States and foreigners accounted for a third of cited researchers in the USA, Australia, Switzerland, Israel, Fra
43、nce and the Netherlands but almost two thirds in Canada. Foreign scientists were uncommon in Japan, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and the rest of the world. On the other hand only 2 percent of US-born cited scientists resided outside the USA. Rates were high for China (100 percent), Taiwan (90 percent), In
44、dia (84 percent) and the rest of the non-European world (86 percent).This is the context in which the contemporary international migration of researchers needs to be considered. We will now consider some of the policies which countries can consider to enhance the benefits they can receive from the m
45、obility of researchers.POLICIES FOR ENHANCING BENEFITS FROM RESEARCHER MOBILITYThe enhanced mobility of researchers presents challenges to national policy makers. On the one hand there is general recognition that high levels of mobility can be beneficial because they facilitate knowledge exchange an
46、d advancement, contribute to the advancement of understanding and stimulate innovation (OECD 2007, 29) in addition to enhancing the human capital of destination areas. On the other, are concerns of the loss of human capital through emigration although there also may be possibilities of origin countr
47、ies benefiting through return migration or maintenance of active research based networks with expatriate researchers. There have been a range of policies and programs advanced by countries as they seek to maximise national benefits accruing from researcher mobility. These policies can be divided int
48、o the following categories. Those which facilitate the international mobility of nationals to gain the benefits of interaction with international colleagues. A range of immigration policies which attract the permanent and temporary in-movement of foreign researchers Return migration programs which e
49、ncourage expatriate researchers to return to their home country after a period in a foreign country. Diaspora-based policies which aim to capture some of the human capital of expatriate researchers who are domiciled in foreign countries. Of course there are also retention policies which seek to discourage international mobility by keeping
