Give Us Your Best and Brightest: The Global Hunt for Talent and Its Impact on the Developing World »

Over the next few decades, global migration is likely to play an influential role in shaping the nature of politics and economies internationally. This timely study illuminates possible implications of migrant flows from a development perspective. The authors survey the magnitude of the poor to rich-country flows, the rich-country policies that are driving them, and the multiple channels through which skilled migration affects development. They provide a rich discussion of the policy options, as they search for those that avoid the worst losses to poor countries while maintaining the most liberal feasible international migration regime.

Alan Winters, Development Research Group, World Bank -

"Devesh Kapur and John McHale have produced an exciting and insightful overview of the global market for talent. This area does not lend itself to simple solutions, but any policymaker grappling with 'brain drain' issues will find a wealth of ideas and analytical tools between these covers. This book will remain an important source for many years."

Acknowledgments

PART 1:

1. Introduction

2. Absent Human Capital: What Do We Know?

3. The International Competition for Talent

4. Why is Immigration Policy Becoming More Skill Focused?

PART 2:

5. When People Can Leave: The Effect of Prospective Emigration

6. Absent Talent: Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

7. Gone but Not Forgotten? The Role of Diaspora

8. Financial Remittances and Development

PART 3:

9. Better than Before? The Role of Returning Emigrants

10. Policy Options

Appendix A: Emigration Losses in a Model with Specialized Skills

Appendix B: Effects of the Brain Drain on Institutions of Higher Education

Appendix C: Open Economy Effects

References

Index