Leaving home is a part of life. Relocating to a far-flung
destination, though, is largely a result of politics and
economics. Previous generations of immigrants left their
home countries knowing it was likely that they would not
return except maybe for momentous family occasions. That’s
changing rapidly and leaders of the Western world are concerned.
In January 2006, Peter Sutherland was appointed to examine
the impact of migration trends on global economies by the
UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. Sutherland was formerly
head of the World Trade Organization, among other notable
titles, and says that how nations deal with immigrants now
will play a key role in defining the future economic landscape.
“I think migration is one of the great issues of this
century … and at both the national and international
level, there hasn’t been the degree of coherence in
policymaking that one would have wished,” Sutherland
told Newsweek last year following his appointment.
Sutherland and many business leaders are concerned about
the number of immigrants returning to their home countries.
Nations such as India and China are now booming with economic
activity and are becoming increasingly attractive to their
citizens living abroad.
In the United States, many skilled workers are becoming
disillusioned with the time it takes to obtain work visas
and legal residency. Immigration Voice, an advocacy group
that monitors government policy, said last year that more
than half a million applications were tied up in the bureaucratic
cycle.
A growing number of applicants are now taking up opportunities
in their home countries rather than sitting on the sidelines
in the U.S. “Before, people were willing to wait it
out. Now they can do just as well by going back home, and
they do,” Murali Bashyam, an immigration lawyer, told
the Raleigh News & Observer.
The global fight for talent in the workplace is becoming
increasingly competitive and while western countries grapple
with migration policy, nations in the Far East are aggressive
in their bids to court skilled labour.
China, India and Vietnam are just three countries that offer
cash incentives as part of their recruitment efforts and
many skilled workers are returning home as a result. In India,
for example, the government says there are 25 million “non-resident
Indians” living in 125 nations and more than 50,000
a year return to settle back in their homeland.
What worries observers in America is the quality of the
foreign-born people leaving. According to a recent article
in Forbes, information technology researchers have estimated
that in 2005, U.S. companies started by immigrants during
the past ten years employed more than 450,000 people and
brought in combined revenue of over $52 billion. Harvard
business professor William Kerr says talent such as the men
and women behind those successes is the kind North American
can’t afford to lose.
In an interview with the Harvard Business School Weekly,
Kerr said “It is interesting to note that while immigrants
account for about 15 percent of the U.S. working population,
they account for almost half of our Ph.D.-level scientists
and engineers. Even within the Ph.D. ranks, foreign-born
individuals have a disproportionate number of Nobel Prizes,
elections to the National Academy of Sciences, patent citations,
and so forth. They are very strong contributors to U.S. technology
development, so it is in the best interests of the United
States to attract and retain this highly skilled group”.
This trend is known as “brain re-gain” and is
a positive step forward for developing nations who have been
losing vast numbers of skilled workers to the developed world
for the past decade. Lured by lucrative opportunities, these
workers have left behind serious gaps in the labour markets
of their home countries. This “brain drain” on
their home economies has been beneficial to nations, such
as the U.S, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, as
it has allowed them to meet their workforce needs.
But as the tide turns, it is likely that the developed world
will see a 22 per cent decline in its labour force over the
next four decades, according to United Nations population
projections. It is essential that policy solutions are developed
to stem the impact of changing migration trends on Western
economies while at the same time ensuring that developing
countries are not disadvantaged.
That’s where Peter Sutherland comes in. His work with
the UN will help develop recommendations for how to manage
the traffic between borders. And to answer more profound
questions, like “Would immigrants leave if they didn’t
have to? Would they always want to go back home?” His
office produced a report last year that put the number of
migrants in 2005 at 191 million globally. With that many
people moving around the planet, it is important to make
a coordinated effort on a global scale to maximize opportunities
for great achievement while minimizing potential risks.
“Migration is the mother of progress and invention,” Sutherland
wrote in an editorial published in the International Herald
Tribune last year. “The will and courage it requires
to leave behind family and country are the same traits that
have driven entrepreneurs and innovators throughout history.
Our world today is shaped by the industry of immigrants.”
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