High-Skilled Migration in Times of Global Economic Crisis

Abstract

This chapter uses two pioneering databases to analyse the implications of the global economic crisis on international migration. The first details inflows of migrant workers of 185 nationalities to ten OECD destinations, disaggregated by skill level between 2000 and 2012. The second comprises immigration policies implemented by nineteen OECD countries between 2000 and 2012. It distinguishes between six skill-selective admission policies, six post-entry policy instruments, and three bilateral agreements. The preliminary analysis is presented against the backdrop of the crisis, which negatively affected annual inflows of highly and other skilled migrants between 2007 and 2009, although these resumed an upward trend thereafter. The starkest trends in policy terms include: the diffusion of student jobseeker visas, the relative stability in the prevalence of skill-selective policies in the wake of the crisis, a greater use of financial incentives to attract high-skilled workers, and increased employer transferability for migrants at destination.