The Global Competition for Talent Innovation and mobility of the highly skilled OECD/France International Conference: CERI 40 th Anniversary Conservatoire.

The Global Competition for TalentInnovation and mobility of the highly skilled

OECD/France International Conference: CERI 40th AnniversaryConservatoire National des Arts et MétiersParis, 9 December 2008

Sarah Box, OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and [email protected]

Background trends: the context for mobility

2

•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…

Note: (1) Australia, Canada, Iceland, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway and Turkey. (2) Argentina, Brazil, India, Israel, Russian Federation, Singapore, South Africa, Chinese Taipei; latest years for India estimated.Source: OECD, Main Science and Technology Indicators and national sources.

Contributions to growth in global R&D, 1996-2001 and 2001-2006(in billion constant USD PPP and %)

37%

16%

23%

15%

7%

13%

10%

13%

11%

30%

12%

13%

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

1996-2001 2001-2006

Other non-OECD (2)

China

Other OECD (1)

Japan

EU-27

United States

Expatriates to OECD countries, by OECD member, 2001

Source: OECD Database on Immigrants and Expatriates 3

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

4

Net balance: Highly skilled emigrants and immigrants, 2001

Source: OECD Database of Immigrants and Expatriates

(000)

5

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)

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Milli

ons

Number of students enrolled outside their country of citizenship,

1975-2005

6Source: OECD Education at a Glance 2007

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.

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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.

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For China: A growing share of students return

20.4 20.9 22.417.6

23.7

39

84

125.2117.3 114.7 118.5

5.8 6.6 7.1 7.4 7.7 9.1 12.217.9 20.2

24.7

35

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

%

Overseas Chinese students Returned students Return/abroad

Thousand persons

Source: OECD, Review of Innovation Policy, China, based on NBS, China Statistical Yearbook.

9

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…

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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

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Impacts – labour market internationalisation

• 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

Share of highly cited with non-home research experience (by country of current institution)

Based on sample of 494 researchers from ISI Highly Cited Database (1985-2004)

Source: Evidence (2005)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Switzerland Australia Canada Italy Germany Netherlands UK Japan France USA

%

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Impacts - invention

• 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.

Patents with foreign co-inventors (2002-04)

13Source: OECD Patent Database 2008

Impacts – co-authorship

• 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…

Relationship of foreign-born US S&E doctorate recipients to country scientific collaboration with US(1994-98 grads and 1999-2003

articles)

Source: Regets (2007)

-2.0

-1.0

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5

Fore

ign-b

orn

US

do

cto

rate

ho

lde

rs 1

994

-98

(lo

g)

Coauthored articles 1999-2003 (log)

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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;

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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