ICT Skills-base for Africa’s Development

Table of Contents

Glossary

Executive Summary

Part I: RESEARCH ORIENTATION SECTION

CHAPTER ONE:
Introduction
Objective of the Study
Problem Definition:
Part II: RESEARCH OBEJCTIVES AND METHOLODGY

CHAPTER TWO
Methodology
Theoretical approach, assumptions and reasoning of econometric specification on Migration
Hypothesis Analysis
Summary of Hypothesis
First Hypothesis: The higher per capita income, the greater is the immigration
Part III: ICT MIGRATION SKILLS LITERATURE REVIEW SECTION
Literature review
Defining Highly Skilled Worker
Why I left?
Part IV: RESEARCH SYNTHESYS

CHAPTER THREE
Origin: The Demand for High Skilled Workers

CHAPTER FOUR
Determinants of migration:
i. Income differentials
ii. Diversification
iii. Threshold effects
iv. Forced migration

CHAPTER FIVE
Risks to migrants:
i. Mass expulsions
ii. Exploitation/abuse and trafficking
iii. Conditions that encourage trafficking
iv. Attempts to control
Part V: ICT POLICY IMPLICATIONS ANALISYS

CHAPTER SIX:
Policy Implications
Policies that Address Brain Drain
Part VI: BRAIN DRAIN CHALLENGES

CHAPTER SEVEN:
High-skilled migration as brain drain or brain gain
Challenges in retaining and attracting back skilled workers from abroad
Diasporas and the Transfer of Knowledge and Remittances
Diasporas Re-Packaging the “Development Message”
Nature of Diaspora Assistance
Part VII: SOME TOPICAL POLICY ISSUES IN MIGRATION MANAGEMENT IN AFRICA

CHAPTER EIGHT:
Remittances
Policies for Democracy and Development
Exploring the Role of ICT
E-readiness in Africa
Part VII: STUDY ON SOUTH AFRICAN ICT SKILLS SHORTAGE SURVEY

CHAPTER NINE:
South African ICT Skills Shortage Survey:
Keeping staff happy
Practitioner responses
On the job experience: priceless
Part IX: RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CHAPTER TEN:
Conclusions
Recommendations
PART X: REFERENCES
References

Glossary

i. OIM Organization for International Migration

ii. SADC Southern Africa Development Community

iii. CIRA Comprehensive Immigration Reforms Act

iv. ICT Information, Communication and Technology

v. UNDP United Nations Development Programme

vi. UNECA United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

vii. NITDA Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency

viii. VOIP Voice over Internet Protocol

ix. JCSE Joburg Centre for Software Engineering

x. SANSA The South African Network of Skills Abroad

xi. GDP Gross Domestic Product

xii. FDI Foreign Direct Investment

xiii. AISI African Information Society Initiative

xiv. VICI Village Information and Communication Infrastructure

xv. NICI National Information and Communications Infrastructure

xvi. IDRC International Development and Research Centre

Part I: RESEARCH ORIENTATION SECTION CHAPTER ONE:

I. Executive Summary

II. Introduction

Executive Summary

This assessment outlines the challenges of retaining and attracting high-skilled professionals, briefly assesses both the “ brain gain ” and the “ brain drain ” in the health sector, and examines some of the existing programs that encourage return. It provides an overview of the role of the Diaspora in fostering the transfer of knowledge, technology, capital, and remittances.

The assessment also looks into the policy implications in each African country and how those policies can attract the Diaspora that is well established in the Western countries.

It draws attention to the principle role of ICT for development bringing insights on the skills needed to embark on a development agenda by attracting the best trained African highly skilled professionals in the areas.

Another essential element has been the economic development of many previously less developed countries. As a result, many goods previously produced primarily by lower-skilled factory workers in the OECD countries are now produced in less developed countries. The globalization of the world economy has altered the international specialization in production.

This has increased the demand for high-skilled workers in the advanced economies, but decreased the demand in those economies for lower-skilled workers whose “ jobs have been shipped overseas. ”

Finally, the immigration policies of some of the advanced economies have exacerbated the increase in skill differentials by fostering the migration of low-skilled workers. “ Family reunification ” policies bring family members of earlier immigrants and guest workers to the destination and they tend to be lower skilled. Policies to counteract the aging of the population have also tended to focus on attracting lower skilled workers, particularly for low-skilled service jobs, including the care of children and the aged.

In response to these developments, immigration policies in the advanced economies have shown a recent tendency to shift toward a focus on attracting high- skilled workers. This is seen in the United States in the Immigration Act of 1990 that reduced the previous emphasis on family migration and increased the role for high- skilled workers as permanent or temporary (HI-B visas) visa recipients. It is seen in Canada and Australia in their skill-based points system for issuing many of their immigrant visas. It is also seen in Europe, and even Japan, with a shift in the emphasis in temporary visas from the low-skilled to the high-skilled workers.

Today programmers, business analysts, Project Managers, Telecommunication Engineers and Network Engineers are skilled shortage in western countries. These countries like US, Canada, Australia and Europe are pretty much advanced in technology manufacturing, boarder control systems, electronic travelers, and banking systems as well as e-commerce and e-government applications. All of these are in need of technical expertise ’ s to replace the baby boomers who are retiring in their respective countries. Africa in turns needs these same engineers to development the already existing systems or applications in the west to Africa. Today more than 90 per cent of applications development or project management companies in Africa are from the West. Government projects in e-government, broadband and telecommunications derive from the West, China and India.

Africa and the African are called to engage their resources trained and educated abroad by proactively developing tools and initiatives through the proper policy framework to attract ICT experts and professionals of various field for the development of Africa.

Part I: RESEARCH ORIENTATION SECTION

CHAPTER ONE:

Introduction

Many parts of the African continent are currently affected by a shortage of qualified human resources. Large-scale departures of executives and university graduates have contributed to this shortage (OIM, 2008).

Thousands of African professionals such as medical doctors, nurses, accountants, engineers, managers, teachers, etc. leave Africa each year. The main reason for their departure is social and economic woes that their countries of origin suffer and they embark in an adventure to seeking either studies or better-paying jobs. Others depart fleeing from insecurity and/or unstable political and unemployment and deteriorated living conditions.

The resulting brain drain heightens the dependency of African economies by compelling them to resort to costly foreign expertise in many areas, which in turn creates a widening vicious circle (OIM, 2008).

With the current credit crunch, economic crisis and technological advance, the Western countries will intensify the reforms of their immigration laws to attract more skilled migrants with the best qualifications and experiences. Areas of policy retention will be: Engineering (all sorts including ICT), Medical practitioners, Plumbers, carpenters, Teachers, and others areas of skills shortage in the US, Australia, Canada and Europe is needed as the majority of their working population is aging. Currently there is a great debate on the US Comprehensive Immigration Reforms Act - CIRA (2008). This document argues that there is a need to attract more experienced skilled migrants as at the same time they will try to give amnesty to more than 11 thousand illegal migrants already residing in the US land in various categories. Obama will fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill. This is an attractive package for African and Asian skilled professionals who find it difficult to settle and have a decent life in their home countries. The demand for Information technologist and telecommunications specialist is growing very high in the US, Canada and Australia. This position by these governments represents a thread to Africa’s development in need of more and more engineers.

Canada has plans to fast-track the immigration process for skilled workers in high- demand occupations, drawing criticism from the country's opposition leaders that the new rules are unfair, because more often, the African migrants are exploited, humiliated and paid lower wages, but there are incentives such as Health care, easy access to housing loan, quality education for their children and the quality of life. These and other political stability presents many attractive to professional engineers.

Applications for immigrants in occupations such as health, skilled trades, finance, and resource extraction will be processed within six to 12 months compared with up to six years under the old system. Geochemists, speech language pathologists, university professors, plumbers and chefs would also be fast-tracked.

The recent steps this government has taken to improve our immigration system will help ensure that Canada remains competitive internationally and responsive to labor market needs domestically," Kenney said. The whole point for these immigration reforms in US and Canada is to maintain their countries competitive internationally and responsive to challenges of New technologies and market demands. So what is Africa doing to attract its ICT graduates in Europe, US, Australia and Canada? What reason makes the African engineers continue to migrate? What factors contribute to their stay in these countries? How much African governments are doing to train more engineers and maintain them in Africa? What retention policies and incentives are there developed in their countries?

Objective of the Study

The specific objectives of the study were:

To assess and analyze the migration and development situation in these two zones of Africa with a special focus on skills migration;

To undertake an assessment of government capacity related to skills migration and the return policy, if any;

To produce an overview of initiatives of various actors/stakeholders (e.g. government, donors, civil society) regarding skills migration; and To identify priority themes and sectors and formulate recommendations for initiatives and actions addressing skills migration back to their home countries.

Problem Definition:

Africa has a huge educational investment of students in foreign universities. The history shows that more than half of the African students in foreign universities have not returned to their home countries. When these students conclude their education, they seek for a competitive salary and benefits package in the western market.

Opportunities in Africa are fewer and the retention or competition is lower as well as the wage gap between the west and Africa is also very huge. High rates of skilled emigration from developing countries, the so-called “brain-drain,” can imply a net transfer of human capital and scarce resources—in the form of the fiscal cost of educating these workers and foregone tax revenues—from low- to high-income countries. The loss of highly educated persons can undermine the foundations of democracy and the institutions needed for well-run economies.

Part II: RESEARCH OBEJCTIVES AND METHOLODGY

CHAPTER TWO:

Methodology

The methodology to be used for this study will involve consultations and discussions with key officials and various stakeholders, individual and group interviews, a review of policy documents and relevant literature, and the analysis of statistical information on skills migration and shortages in two African Zones: Southern Africa (South Africa, Zambia and Angola) and West Africa.

Finally, it must be mentioned that in most African countries reliable data concerning return migration are virtually non-existent. This is largely due to methodological problems related to the operational definition of reverse mobility, and to the fact that migratory movements are often not reflected in adjourned official records. But, furthermore, it has to be borne in mind that today more and more citizens of countries in the Southern Africa region somehow find themselves in the situation of “global commuters” whose country of residence, even when it is recorded, is de facto not a steady one (OIM, 2004).

Theoretical approach, assumptions and reasoning of econometric specification on Migration

Different theories can be actually incorporated into a model of decisions (location) with individuals that maximize their utility (see, for example Zadovni (1997)). The country that maximizes the utility of an individual living in a country depend on the specific features of the country, individual characteristics, as well as the nature of the place of origin. In this way, the utility of the individual to migrate to country j, given that living in country i in year t may be expressed as follows:

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where Xnit are characteristic of the site i in year t, Dnjt includes destination variables such as expected average income, unemployment, and the 'stock compatriots' and residents. Cni finally represents the fixed costs associated with migrating from the region ia the region j. Assuming a linear utility of the equation (1) may be expressed:

In this way, the probability that individual n chose site j among J possible outcomes is:

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So, the number of individuals who migrate from country i to country j at time t is equal to the number of individuals in the country i for which their utility is maximized in the country j. That is, If we assume that the number of immigrants expressed in equation (4) is a linear function of variables that affect the choice of the individual, then the econometric specification can be represented as follows:

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Where, ijtη is the error term which is assumed orthogonal to the explanatory variables. The estimated model also includes specific effects constant over time in the country of origin and destination, so that the shape of the estimate is as follows:

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The set of explanatory variables XIT collected characteristics of the countries of origin that vary over time. Within this group, on the one hand we consider per capita income, the level of inequality and growth in the country of origin. In addition, the explanatory variables in the destination country with which we can capture the effect of the factors' pull ', there are three groups of variables: the stock of immigrants from the same country of origin, measures of the generosity of the welfare state or its achievement of reduction of inequalities and, finally, variables to capture the labor market opportunities of immigrants. Finally, the variables ICJ representing the fixed costs associated with the process of migration. Thus, from this specification will be able to assess the next set of hypotheses:

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Hypothesis Analysis

Summary of Hypothesis

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Table 1. Summary of Hypothesis

First Hypothesis: The higher per capita income, the greater is the immigration

It is not obvious to be missed by their argument that the average income expected to be higher in countries where GDP per capita is higher, so if an immigrant is to obtain the maximum benefit would prefer that country where they can get higher income. Logically, this will affect other factors, including income distribution as we mentioned previously. In general, it is expected to see the arrival of more immigrants in times when the country offers better levels of GDP per capita, or parallel to those richest countries in GDP per capita. The consideration of relative levels in countries of destination, and not its differential with respect to the same variables in their home countries, would mean that the opportunity costs of emigration are equally low in all cases.

Second Hypothesis: Economic growth stimulates migration

The economic situation in the country of destination should influence the choice of immigrants, since the probability of employment will be clearly better in a country where the economy is in a growth phase than in those in which it is entering recession. The connection between economic growth and the probability of employment should encourage immigrants to come to countries that grow more, which would mean that countries enjoying good economic health will increase the number of immigrants crossing borders in search of a job, attracted by the good economic performance and growth figures.

Third Hypothesis: The higher the unemployment rate; the lower will be the flow of immigration

It is not only the good performance of the economy which has the opposite effect tone, but also how it translates into employment opportunities. This would imply that low unemployment rates are related to greater ease in finding a job, which is expected to encourage immigration. The flexibility of the labor market, the economic sector (mainly the services sector and labor-intensive) and the employment regulation factors are undoubtedly correlated with the variable employment opportunities here for the approximate unemployment rate, all other things equal.

Fourth Hypothesis: The greater generosity of the welfare state, the largest immigration flow

As we argued in the previous section, below are a set of assumptions related to the functioning of welfare states. Indeed, not daring to assume that public benefits will affect the income of immigrants, being greater the coverage of the welfare in that state. The difference in eligibility between the two items of expenditure approach enables different relationships for each level of its influence on the flow of immigrants, not so far considered in the empirical analysis. In this way, the attraction is certainly not expected from the same services that are available at zero cost, the other to ensure stability in the level of income at the expense of lower income in each period of work (non-contributory transfers versus contributory).. Similarly, the effect would be different if you just call the immigrant who gets the work permit who receives the benefit, or whether it also enjoys the family (singular or transfers not linked to a single recipient). Finally, if the provision monetarily allows the sending of remittances, then transfers in cash are only possible in the destination country.

Thus, the welfare policies are possible to guarantee minimum income, with no need to make some advance in the system, ie, that the only requirements to be considered is the participant need assistance. Such policies are expected to influence the decision of the immigrant to decide what should be the best country to immigrate to, because in those countries where the level of public spending is higher, by ensuring high levels of more generous care, immigrants may see their income increased to a greater extent. On the other hand, the social security schemes are designed to ensure the individual against a total or partial loss of income, but the 'assurance' for the maintenance of income as such is not done at zero cost, but the individual must contribute with a proportion of their income each period, and also the amount received in case of need a proportionate part of it. In this case, the income also increased as there is a need, but unlike the welfare programs of care, not everyone who is facing a loss of income will benefit from unemployment insurance, and those who will receive in exchange for a monetary contribution above. This means that incentives for immigrants provides something different in this case than in the above, since the expected income in this case is not affected. Thus depending of the attitude of the immigrant towards the risk of loss of income, that government spending on social security exercises tone. In short, although it is expected that public spending has an incentive to migration, the effects depending on the nature of aqthe first on the composition of the expected different. That is, those services may create greater incentives unique to the immigration of a single member, while most people are entitled to the incentives of households to migration are higher and the difference should be even more clearly when made in figures.

Fifth Hypothesis: The greater dispersion of income, the lower the flow of immigration

In the previous case it was considered the possible effect of the amount of public spending on various policies and this meant that the immigrant was in any of the deciles in the social spending could end up representing a significant portion of their disposable income. This logic leads to consider what might be the attitude of the immigrant to the observed distribution of income: if equality is important or whether different income quintiles have any influence on their decisions. From the 'veil of ignorance' before leaving, the immigrant might be interested in that country where the penalty for falling into the poorest ratio is less, although this would be at the expense of some minor benefits if successful and was in the group with more purchasing power of the population. The importance or otherwise of this concern for the distribution of income in the country of destination will depend greatly on the attitude towards risk shown by the individual. Similarly, it is possible that the aversion to inequality of income or polarity will vary depending on the country of origin of immigrants. That is, immigrants from other countries were more egalitarian, in negative terms, such as those scattered in countries where it is clearly polar, because the latter have been accustomed to this situation.

Sixth Hypothesis: Relative deprivation in the country of destination does not encourage nor discourages the immigration

The inequality as perceived by the individual need not be the same that exists throughout the country, as it is usually compared to those around you. In order to bring this idea using the concept of relative deprivation, which is intuitively understood as a measure of utility defined in terms of 'no'. In other words, the 'evil' is someone who does not own something that one group of society, regarded as the reference, it does. Stark and Taylor (1991) argue that immigrants to lie on a completely different society and culture are always compared with the company's country of origin, their social situation in the country of destination is not important. All this relates to the analysis of interest, would mean that relative deprivation in the country of destination does not encourage nor discourages the immigration.

Finally, if we want to analyze how various socio-economic factors influence the decision of the immigrant to choose one or the other OECD countries, the menu cannot be limited to those described so far. Although it would be interesting to analyze all of the particularities of each country are listed below, both personally as a criterion for the conclusions reached in earlier studies, they are considered to have any effect on the decision.

Seventh Hypothesis: The existence of minimum wage provides some assurance that encourage immigration

It is difficult to know who will pay the immigrant at arrival in the destination country if you have not previously done the labor agreement. Discussed above that the GDP per capita can serve as a reference, but still there is the risk of job insecurity and social. To evaluate this possibility, we can examine this relationship through the impact they have on the decision whether or not a minimum wage that ensures a certain level of income that can prevent employers from exploiting workers immigrants at a cost too low. If immigrants are concerned about the existence of the guaranteed minimum, prefer to immigrate to countries where there is a minimum wage.

Eighth Hypothesis: The existence of networks of fellow migrants decreases the costs associated with migration, increasing immigration.

In general, when it is time to migrate it is easier if the destination country has relatives or acquaintances living there. Costs are reduced by many factors, most notably the reduction in the time between arrival and the first job, as the immigrants are already familiar with the country's labor market and employment opportunities, and can advise newcomers on the best strategy, and could even obtain promises of a job to allow the incorporation of work from the outset. The costs are also of great psychological importance in a migration, and they clearly will be diminished if immigrants upon arrival in the destination country lives in a family environment, ie in a neighborhood consisting mostly of members from their own culture, although the adaptation process needed much less. Finally, we believe that travel costs can be reduced to have a more detailed account of the process, provided by well-known who have done previously. Thus, networks of fellow migrants can act as a filter of information, reducing transaction costs for which would otherwise incur. This decrease in costs should influence the decision process of the immigrant, who may prefer to try their luck in that country that has a larger number of known, or group of members of common cultural origin is greater.

The empirical evidence available (see eg Dunlevy, 1991 and Bartel, 1989) shows that the stock of immigrants is one of the decisive factors in determining flows of immigrants. Moreover, Zavodny (1997) concluded that the effect of welfare benefits found by Borjas (1996) disappear when we consider the effect of the presence of immigrants already in place.

Ninth Hypothesis: The credibility of immigration policies in each country and its evolution over time can have 'call effect.

The Institutional aspects in the same country in relation to changes relating to family reunification policies, regularization of illegal immigrants, implementing recruitment processes in origin, etc.. may also have its impact on immigration flows. Anticipation of legislative changes or the lack of credibility of some regulatory changes can have 'meaning call' for new immigration.

Questionable factors:

I. Political, economical and social disturbances pave way for professionals to migrate from Africa to Western Countries, but exploitation and humiliation awaits them, so what makes African skilled migrants still prime for migration?
II. Though the lower wages, exploitation graduates affirm that the success of their children depends on a quality education, does African universities and government policies inadequate to offer quality education? Even if trained abroad, are there enough incentives and good policies for these professionals to reaffirm themselves back home?
III. If their home countries are stabilized, employment policies are reformed and job opportunities open, what makes ICT graduates still migrate to Western countries?

Today programmers, business analysts, Project Managers, Telecommunication Engineers and Network Engineers are skilled shortage in western countries. These countries like US, Canada, Australia and Europe are pretty much advanced in technology manufacturing, boarder control systems, electronic travelers, and banking systems as well as e-commerce and e-government applications. All of these are in need of technical expertise’s to replace the baby boomers who are retiring in their respective countries. Africa in turns needs these same engineers to development the already existing systems or applications in the west to Africa. Today more than 90 per cent of applications development or project management companies in Africa are from the West. Government projects in e-government, broadband and telecommunications derive from the West, China and India.

Part III: ICT MIGRATION SKILLS LITERATURE REVIEW SECTION

Literature review

Literature has commonly compared immigration regimes across countries (e.g. Cornelius et al.1994) or over time (e.g. Castles and Miller, 1993). In an attempt to find similarities over such varied political agendas, Freeman (1995) has distinguished three immigration settings with share common trends: the English- speaking settler societies (namely, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA), the European states with post-colonial and guestworker migrations (Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland), and southern Europe (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain). For this last group of countries, Freeman (1995) argued that there are two significant circumstances in which political responses are fashioned. The first is the near complete absence of any institutional mechanisms or administrative experience for planning or regulating immigration. The second is the decisive influence of the European Union on immigration decisions across these countries. More rarely has literature explored incidence of policies on immigrant labour outcomes. From a theoretical point of view, Portes and Böröcz (1989) established a typology of contemporary immigration in advanced societies. According to these analysts, labour outcomes are as dependent on the immigrant class of origin as on the host country ('context of reception' in their terminology). Contexts of reception are defined as "[...] the stance of host governments, employers, the surrounding native population and the characteristics of the pre- existing ethnic community, if any" (Portes and Böröcz, 1989: 618). In adverse contexts, the 'natural' outcome for unskilled workers is incorporation in secondary labour markets. From a more empirical standpoint, Reitz (1998) has argued that immigration policy (amongst other institutional factors) is a key element in understanding why Canadian and Australian immigrant wages are on average higher (relative to natives) than their US counterparts. Earnings are the main indicator for neo-classical studies to measure success in host labour markets (see, for instance, Carliner, 1980; Grossman, 1982; Borjas, 1987). Such an approach is impossible for the Iberian countries, as information on earnings are not disaggregated by immigrant country of origin, race or nationality in Portugal or Spain (Mendoza, 1998). Other comparative research measures 'success' in host labour markets in terms of upward occupational mobility as well as wages. Thus Dawkins et al (1992) and Borjas (1993) found that Australian and Canadian immigrants, respectively, were placed in a better position in labour markets than the US ones. In their explanations, both analysts agreed on the selectivity criteria on Australian and Canadian immigration policies (which favour entry of professionals and high-skilled workers) as a main reason for dissimilarities in labour market outcomes. Similar to these studies, this paper explores links between immigration policies and African labour outcomes in two national settings. Substantial to this argument is the analysis of levels of schooling before and after emigration.

The English speaking settler societies (US, Canada, Australia, UK and New Zealand) give a greater prominence to immigration reforms and consider attraction of skilled professionals as an investment to maintain their competitiveness in the world and to also replace their baby boomers generation which is ageing.

The writer of “How intensive is the Brain Drain?” (William J. Carrington and Enrica Detragiache, 1998) Says that immigrants from Africa to America consist primarily of highly educated individuals (about 95,000 of the 128,000 African migrants).

Sources: William J. Carrington and Enrica Detragiache, 1998

Levels of schooling is a relevant issue for neo-classical theories, as this theoretical position holds that there is a close connection between workers' investment in human capital (i.e. years of schooling, on-the-job training, field of study and job experience) and labour market outcomes (see, for instance, Sjaastad, 1962; Becker, 1964).

In deciding investment in human capital, workers balance the costs (e.g. time or money) and the benefits (e.g. better career prospects) associated with any investment. The performance of immigrants in a host labour market is held to be a result of both investment in destination-specific human capital (Borjas, 1982; Bauer and Zimmermann, 1994) and the transferability of human capital between regions (Chiswick, 1978). This is true and realistic with any skilled experienced professional, mainly for ICT professionals.

Here it is argued that such 'transferability' (if it exists) relies strongly on the role of the state in a host country. In contrast with neo-classical approaches, segmentation theory holds that labour markets are divided, such that access to jobs with better pay (i.e. ICT professionals, medical doctors, mechanical and civil engineers) and working conditions is restricted to a limited number of workers, who are distinguished by class, ethnicity, age and gender (e.g. Doeringer and Piore, 1971; Reich et al., 1973; Burchell and Rubery, 1994).

Following this line of thought, immigrants occupy the least desirable, unstable, short-term jobs in host labour markets (Piore, 1979; Portes, 1981) with exception to highly experienced engineers in the area of ICT such as Business analysts, programmers, project managers, telecommunications and networks as well as some other medical practitioners. Even if foreign-born workers occupy secondary jobs in the west, the argument put forward here is that immigrant labour outcomes are not only the result of the segmented nature of labour markets, but also of institutional factors, amongst which the immigration policy plays a leading role.

Defining Highly Skilled Worker

It is not always clear just who the highly skilled are. The most obvious indicator is either the level of education or occupation. Depending on the objective to be achieved, one or the other is preferred. If relevance to policy is important, most governments typically use a combination of both education and occupation to select the highly skilled. Ultimately, data availability often constrains the definition used for the purpose of analysis.

The most basic definition of highly skilled migrants tends to be restricted to persons with tertiary education, typically adults who have completed a formal two-year college education or more. This is also the most readily available international statistic and, by default, the most widely studied measure of highly skilled mobility.