A Global Labour Market: The International Migration of Skilled Workers

Skilled migration is an important issue for many countries today. Most countries are affected by it either as sending or receiving countries of skilled migrants. For sending countries, it is a problem of 'brain drain' if the skilled migrants do not return, but the countries also benefit from remittances sent back by the migrants and the social and economic networks established with their nationals overseas. For receiving countries, many of which face skill labour shortages due to population and labour force ageing, economic growth and technology change, there is competition to attract skilled foreign workers to fill these shortages. Consequently there is enormous interest today among scholars and policy makers in the countries of Western Europe, North America and Asia in the issues arising from the international migration of skilled workers.