These conference proceedings provide data on the scale and characteristics of flows and stocks of skilled and highly skilled foreign workers, assess the quality of the data available and the concepts used, and discuss how to improve their comparability.

This volume examines self-initiated expatriates (SIEs), the category of highly skilled people whose movement from one country to another is by choice. Although they are not forced to relocate due to work, conflict or natural disaster, their migration pattern is every bit as complex. The book challenges previous theoretical approaches that take for granted a more simplistic view of this population, and advances that mobility of SIEs relates to the expatriates themselves, their conditions and the different structures intervening in their career life course. With their visible increase worldwide, this book positions itself as a nexus for this on-going discussion, while linking self-initiated expatriation to the theoretical landscape of international skilled migration and mobility. Major interests that catch attention are transnational practices, work-related experiences and personal life course, including forms of inequalities in their migration experiences. The book identifies forms and drivers of migratory behaviour and provides an argument concerning the broader processes of mobility and integration. As such, this book constitutes a departure point for future research in terms of theoretical underpinnings and empirical rigor on global highly skilled mobility of SIEs. The collection of empirical case studies offers an insightful analysis for policy makers, concerned stakeholders and organizations to better cope with this form of migration.

Drawing on analytical literature, the most recent data available, and policy inventories, this publication discusses the dimensions, significance, and policy implications of international flows of human resources in science and technology.

This open access short reader discusses the emerging patterns of sedentary migration versus mobility of the highly-skilled thereby providing a comprehensive overview of the recent literature on highly-skilled migration. Highly-skilled migrations are arguably the only non-controversial migrant category in political and public discourse. The common perception is that highly-skilled migrants are high-earners with top educational skills and that they are easy to integrate. These perceptions make them a “wanted” migrant. There seems to be however a big divide between the popular perceptions of this migration and its realities uncovered in social research. This publication closes this divide by delving deeper in the variety of experiences, discourses and realities of highly skilled migrants, thereby uncovering the inherent divides between the highly skilled migrants from the North and the South. The reader shows that these divides are constructed realities, shaped by the state policies and underpinned by social imaginary. Written in an accessible language this reader is a perfect read for academics, students and policy makers and all those unfamiliar with the topic.

In a knowledge-based economy, innovation has become a key driver of economic growth. The return migration of highly skilled workers to traditional sending countries such as Taiwan, China, and India has increased the international mobility of highly skilled workers in the Science and Technology sector. As a result, this will change transnational migration patterns of highly skilled workers in the future and will affect recruitment strategies of traditional receiving countries such as Canada. This research project will analyze highly skilled workers' role in innovation and analyze international migration trends of highly skilled workers. It argues that highly skilled workers have become more valuable in the innovation process as their international mobility has increased in a knowledge-based economy and receiving countries that rely on highly skilled immigrants need to recognize that permanent migration may not be in today's minds of migrants. Rather, onward and circular migration policies need to be framed.