Policy options for managing international student migration: the sending country's perspective

Abstract

A consequence of the dramatic rise in international student mobility is the trend for international students to remain in the country in which they study after graduation. Countries such as Australia, the UK and Canada stand to benefit from international student migration, as they are able to fill skill shortages with locally trained foreign students who also expand the demand for goods and services and add to gross national production. The effects on the sending country, however, are potentially less favourable and the emigration of highly educated people can have a detrimental effect, depleting an already scarce resource. However, more recently it has been suggested that an increasing proportion of migratory movement is temporary and that sending countries may benefit from circular or temporary migration via financial remittances, technology transfer, entrepreneurial partnering, and the development of personal networks and diplomatic ties. This paper will consider the impacts of international student migration on sending countries and discuss the policy responses that various sending countries have employed in attempt to regulate student migration.