Reasons for Migration
As per the study by Byra (2013) multiple approaches can be highlighted in order to understand the factors resulting in high-skilled migration. The Neo-classical economic and growth theory emphasizes on the significance of market relations, choice and scarcity which define demand and supply. Migration in this sense is defined as the product of cumulative effects of choices made by rational individuals looking for advantageous outcomes for their families and self. It has been seen that rational actors usually are inclined towards high value and high paying jobs in developed countries. This motivates foreign labor to shift to places having higher demand for labor and places that exhibit significant wage differentials among nations (Byra, 2013).
The likeliness of migration would then be shaped by the prospective for the differential wage rates and employment options between nations. There are some other factors which are significant in permitting markets to function in this manner like information which brings supply and demand together. Newly available migration data and the effects of the feedbacks acquired from previous literature have resulted in significant and empirical literature (Byra, 2013).
High-skilled migration is nothing but an extension of this showing that academics and scientists of developing nations move towards developed nations to take up the posts which were empty due to shortage of skills. Multiple factors play a significant role in shaping the decisions of individuals who make no rational choices in situations of perfect market. For example, labor migration might be a part of the household strategies for coping strategies or diversification permitting calculations of potential scale and likeliness of remittances to become a part of the equation (Bhargava and Docquier, 2008).
However, the crux of this argument is that segmented and differential markets generate pull/push factors that help in shaping the migration decisions of the rational actors looking for maximization of their positions. This is quite simple and states that various complex geographic, political, economic, cultural, institutional and professional factors play a significant role in shaping up the decisions. This list is augmented by focusing on factors like personal history; goals; personality; the workplace, research institutes and environments that are suitable to professional autonomy in the universities accounting to individual differences (Egger et.al, 2012).
There are various differences between the pull and push factors. The push factors comprise of ecological deterioration; natural disasters; lacking opportunities in home country to use the skills; social and political instability; repression; poor living standards and lacking life chances. Beneficial conditions in the host countries seem to be pull factors like freedom from oppression or political instability; access to the research findings; good working conditions, job opportunities and high wage rates.
It has been argued with respect to these instances that skilled migration is both a process of exploiting human capital resource by governments and firms in developed countries and a vote of no confidence for the country of origin. These are the push factors that are augmented by bringing together Higher Education and Brain Drain in Africa and the U.K. The demographic, technological and economic changes taking place in the developed nations create skills gaps in sectors like innovative industries, health industries and field of education. It has been reported by ICFTU that most of the nurses newly recruited within the UK between 2001 and 2002 were from foreign countries like Africa, India or Philippines (Egger et.al, 2012).