The Global Competition for Talent

1. The Global Competition for Talent Innovation and mobility of the highly skilled OECD/France International Conference: CERI 40th Anniversary Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers Paris, 9 December 2008 Sarah Box, OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry sarah.box@oecd.org

2. Background trends: the context for mobility • Strengthening investment in R&D raising demand for researchers • Non-OECD countries of growing importance for global science and innovation • Fragmentation of value chains • Ageing population, drop in share of graduates in science and engineering…

3. Expatriates to OECD countries, by OECD member, 2001 Source: OECD Database on Immigrants and Expatriates

4. Highly skilled migrants from OECD & non-OECD countries, by OECD country of residence, 2001 (as % of skilled natives in country of residence) Source: OECD Database on Immigrants and Expatriates

5. Net balance: Highly skilled emigrants and immigrants, 2001 (000) Source: OECD Database of Immigrants and Expatriates

6. Student mobility has risen very fast • Students are increasingly mobile – numbers grew 50% from 2000-2005 • 84% enrolled in OECD area – top destinations are US, UK, Germany, France, Australia • Two-thirds of foreign students in OECD countries are from non-OECD economies – top sources are China, India, Morocco, Malaysia, Hong Kong (China) Number of students enrolled outside their country of citizenship, 1975-2005 Source: OECD Education at a Glance 2007

7. Return and circular migration • Return and circular migration form an important part of mobility • 75% return rate of skilled Australian emigrants who depart “permanently” • 50% of immigrants with work visas left Norway within 10 years of arrival – similar figures in Canada • Intended length of stay of immigrants to UK is falling.

8. Why do people return? • Reasons for return: • Family/personal reasons, adequate employment opportunities at home • Norwegian data on scientific researchers – the greater the cultural, economic and geographic distance, the more likely migrant researchers will leave Norway • For students, perceptions of labour market in host country also important. Stay rates of students differ by country of origin, and by field of study.

9. For China: A growing share of students return Source: OECD, Review of Innovation Policy, China, based on NBS, China Statistical Yearbook.

10. Impacts of mobility • Personal gain: better economic conditions, availability of quality research infrastructure, access to “star” scientists, freedom to debate • Mobility is vital to diffusion of tacit knowledge • Face-to-face communication is still important • Migrant knowledge spreads to their new organisation, to geographically proximate entities and to community of practice • Amount of knowledge that moves depends on institutional environment, absorptive capacity…

11. Impacts on sending countries • Permanent migration • Diaspora: building familiarity and confidence with sending countries, acting as conduits for knowledge • “Beneficial brain drain” – an incentive to improve human capital • Access to a larger global stock of knowledge • Temporary migration • “Brain circulation” builds networks, linkages and thoroughfares for knowledge – but absorptive capacity is essential

12. Impacts – labour market internationalisation Share of highly cited with non-home research experience (by country of current institution) • Occurring in both private sector and academia • Drawing on migrant knowledge of foreign languages and markets, networks of colleagues, teaching abilities • Some evidence that academic mobility associated with higher quality output Based on sample of 494 researchers from ISI Highly Cited Database (1985-2004) Source: Evidence (2005)

13. Impacts - invention Patents with foreign co-inventors (2002-04) • Studies from US suggest increasing proportion of patents involve foreign nationals residing in US, and large involvement of skilled immigrants in engineering & tech firm creation. • Also increasing international co-operation in invention. Source: OECD Patent Database 2008

14. Impacts – co-authorship Relationship of foreign-born US S&E doctorate recipients to country scientific collaboration with US (1994-98 grads and 1999-2003 articles) • Numerous studies point to increased international co-authorship • E.g. from 1992-2003, the % of internationally co-authored S&E papers went from 14% to 25% in US and 12% to 21% in Japan • Patterns of co-authorship affected by country capacity, geographic proximity, institutional linkages… Source: Regets (2007)

15. Future prospects • Mobility of skilled people has become a central aspect of globalisation • Mobility policies in OECD countries are currently mainly aimed at attracting talent and addressing shortages: • With growing international demand for talent, developing and strengthening national efforts to foster talent will become more important to address demand. • Sending talent abroad should be equally important as attracting talent. • More thinking on the rationale for government policy is needed • Developing policy coherence: • Policy gaps: fostering circular/temporary mobility, diaspora • Establishing a supportive broader environment for innovation;

16. Summary • Mobility of researchers leads to flows of knowledge that benefit both sending and receiving countries: Mobility is not a zero-sum game • Flows of HRST and students are significant for some countries, with increasing circular and return migration • Mobility is accompanied by increasing internationalisation of labour markets, research, and scientific activity • Mobility is growing and competition for highly skilled is increasing – getting domestic HRST supply policies right is becoming more important