Migration of Highly Educated Asians and Global Dynamics

The migration of Asians trained in technical fields is the most important component of the total global migration of scientific, technical and professional workers from developing to developed countries (primarily Australia, Canada and the United States). Though this phenomenon shares common characteristics with the larger international migration of all labor, it is unique in that migration from Asia to the industrialized countries favors the highly educated, and the debate over brain drain remains complex and inconclusive. The far-reaching effects of the movement of Asian high level manpower (HLM) are discussed in light of: 1) the global articulation of higher education; 2) the link to unequal development on a global scale; and 3) the contribution to economic development of the reverse flow of HLM to less developed countries.