Transnational networks and skilled labour migration

Abstract

Since the onset of the 1990s, skilled labour migration has been a burgeoning and everdeveloping field of research. Here, skilled migrants – most broadly defined as those in possession of a tertiary degree or extensive specialized work experience – include architects, accountants and financial experts, engineers, technicians, researchers, scientists, chefs, teachers, health professionals, and – increasingly – specialists in information technology (IT, including computing professionals, computing engineers, managers, sales reps, etc.). Social and professional characteristics, industrial needs and strategies and government policies surrounding this field will be addressed by other participants in the workshop. This brief contribution outlines some concepts, patterns and issues surrounding kinds of globallystretched, or transnational, networks involving highly skilled workers. [The paper does not deal with transfers of personnel within large firms and corporations that are themselves organized as transnational networks.] Several researchers have pointed out that – particularly with regard to the highly skilled – ‘migration ’ may now not be the most accurate term. Instead, ‘movement ’ or ‘mobility ’ may be more apt terms. This is because migration has connotations of permanency or long-term stay,