Indian skilled migration and development: an introduction

By offering new empirical evidence on Indian skilled migration, this volume attempts to fill two gaps in the literature. Firstly, it contributes to a better understanding of the activities of Indian skilled professionals and students in continental Europe. This is a rather recent phenomenon and one that has been particularly under-researched. The topic is an important one since the institutional settings of host countries are not only significant in terms of their attractiveness for skilled migrants but also in how they facilitate the migrants’ exchange of knowledge with the home country and influence their mobility plans, including those related to possible return. Secondly, it offers an analysis of Indian skilled return migration and of the circumstances in which this occurs. It also examines the experiences of returnees by focusing on their ability to transfer the knowledge and skills they have gained abroad to the local context and the impact generated on their immediate surroundings. In the case of India, the return option has not been fully understood and the settings required for actual development leverage have not been thoroughly explored. The studies complied in this volume examine the factors in the home and host countries at both an individual and a country level that influence the possibility of skilled Indians applying their foreign-earned knowledge, skills and expertise to the Indian context. These studies may help to illuminate the literature further within the context of India–Europe high skilled migration issues and to formulate effective policy options for both the country of origin and countries of destination.