Chen Chen: Brain Circulation-The Educational Profile of Return Migrants
Dr. Chen Chen from ADRI recently published her new paper “Brain Circulation: The Educational Profile of Return Migrants” in the international journal Population Research and Policy Review. Chen Chen is the first and corresponding author of this paper. ADRI’s Prof. Guy Abel is also one of the co-authors.
Abstract
Countries increasingly compete to attract
and retain human capital. However, empirical studies, particularly those of
migrants moving back to developing countries, have been limited due to the lack
of education-specific migration flow data. Drawing on census microdata from
IPUMS, we derive flow data by level of education and age group to quantify the
level of return migration and examine the educational and age profile of return
migrants for a global sample of 60 countries representing 70% of the world
population. We show that return migrants account for a significant share of
in-migration flows, particularly in Africa and Latin America, and, in all
countries but six, return migrants are more educated than the population in the
migrants’ country of birth. Our age decomposition reveals that young adults
contribute the most to the positive educational selectivity of return migrants,
particularly in Africa and Asia. While this paper does not quantify the net
effect of return migration on education levels, it underlines the importance of
the human capital contributions of young adult returnees.