Ebook: Indian Skilled Migration and Development: To Europe and Back

This edited contribution explores strategies and measures for leveraging the potential of skilled diasporas and for advancing knowledge-based evidence on return skilled migration and its impact on development. By taking the example of Indian skilled migration, this study identifies ways of involving returned skilled migrants in home country development as well as proposes approaches to engage the diaspora in development. As high-skill immigration from India to mainland Europe is a rather recent phenomenon, the activities of Indian professionals in Europe are under-researched. The findings have wider application in contributing to the policy dialogue on migration and development, specifically to the advantage for developing and emerging economies. The book employs an interdisciplinary, two-fold approach: The first part of the research looks at how international exposure affects the current situation of skilled returnees in India. The second, European, part of the research examines migration policies, labour market regulations and other institutional settings that enable or hinder skilled Indians’ links with the country of origin. Structural differences between the host countries may facilitate different levels of learning opportunities; thus, this book identifies good practices to promote the involvement of Indian skilled diaspora in socio-economic development. In applying the framework of diaspora contributions as well as the return channel to study the impact on India, the book draws on qualitative and quantitative research methods consisting of policy analysis, in-depth interviews with key experts and skilled migrants and on data sets collected specifically for this study.

This topical volume offers new empirical evidence on Indian skilled migrants living in European countries, which have become important destinations in the global competition for talent, and on returnees in India. Making use of an interdisciplinary and multi-level analytical framework, which simultaneously includes diaspora interventions and return migration as its main channels of participation, the studies included in this volume offer original insights into the dynamics of skilled migration from India and its effects. The chapters highlight the determining factors required to channel possible contributions towards broad-based development and they suggest policy options for the home and host countries.

Skilled migration has emerged as a major theme in the migration and development nexus in recent years, and this has led to an increase in studies that contemplate foreign-based skilled individuals from the perspective of their potential contributions to their countries of origin, either through diaspora interventions or their eventual return. India is a paradigmatic case, given the significant presence of Indian skilled professionals and students in industrialised countries and the established positive vision of their influence on the socioeconomic progress of the country through transfers of knowledge and skills, investment and financial remittances. At the same time, the number of skilled professionals returning to India has also increased, and these returnees bring an accumulation of knowledge and technical abilities, financial resources and entrepreneurial ventures, which are susceptible to generating changes in the local context. However, the creation of benefits depends on several factors, mostly associated with structural conditions and opportunities in the countries of destination and origin concerned.

The volume critically discusses the above issues in the context of skilled migration from India to Europe and will be useful for academics and policy makers interested in migration studies and development issues.