Alongside flows of trade and capital, the free movement of professionals, technical personnel, and students is seen as a key aspect of globalization. Yet not much detailed empirical research has been completed about the trajectories and experiences of these highly skilled or highly educated international migrants. What little is known about these forms of "global mobility," and the politics that surround them, contrasts with the abundant theories and accounts of other types of international migration—such as low income economic migration from less developed to core countries in the international political economy.
Drawing on the work of a long-standing discussion group at the Center for Comparative and Global Research of UCLA's International Institute, this collection bridges conventional methodological divides, bringing together political scientists, sociologists, demographers, and ethnographers. It explores the reality behind assumptions about these new global migration trends. It challenges widely held views about the elite characteristics of these migrants, the costs and consequences of the brain drain said to follow from the migration of skilled workers, the determinants of national policies on high skilled migrants, and the presumed "effortlessness" of professional mobility in an integrating world. The volume also sheds new light on international student migration, the politics of temporary, non-immigrant workers in the United States, new international forms of regulating movement, and the realities of the everyday lives of multinational employees in the world's transnational cities. Key differences between the regional contexts of this migration in Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific are also emphasized.
Michael Peter Smith is professor of community studies at the University of California, Davis. He has published extensively on urban theory, globalization, and transnationalism including Transnationalism from Below and City and Nation (both available through Transaction) and Transnational Urbanism. Adrian Favell is associate professor of sociology at UCLA. He is the author of Philosophies of Integration, and has published widely on migration in Europe, citizenship, the integration of immigrants, and on social theory.

Michael Peter Smith, Michael Smith, Adrian Favell

Smith, Michael P; Favell, Adrian

Adrian Favell; Michael P Smith

New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers

Comparative urban and community research, 2nd pbk. printing 2008, New Brunswick, NJ, ©2006

Comparative urban and community research -- v. 8, New Brunswick, N.J, New Jersey, 2006

United States, United States of America

8, New Brunswick, NJ, c 2006

April 10, 2006

FR, 2006

Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-301) and index.

viii, 314 pages : 23 cm
"Alongside flows of trade and capital, the free movement of professionals, technical personnel, and students is seen as a key aspect of globalization. Yet not much detailed empirical research has been completed about the trajectories and experiences of these highly skilled or highly educated international migrants. What little is known about these forms of "global mobility," and the politics that surround them, contrasts with the abundant theories and accounts of other types of international migration - such as low income economic migration from less developed to core countries in the international political economy." "Drawing on the work of a long-standing discussion group at the Center for Comparative and Global Research of UCLA's International Institute, this collection bridges conventional methodological divides, bringing together political scientists, sociologists, demographers, and ethnographers. It explores the reality behind assumptions about these new global migration trends. It challenges widely held views about the elite characteristics of these migrants, the costs and consequences of the brain drain said to follow from the migration of skilled workers, the determinants of national policies on high skilled migrants, and the presumed "effortlessness" of professional mobility in an integrating world."--Jacket
Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-301) and index
The human face of global mobility: a research agenda / Adrian Favell, Miriam Feldblum and Michael Peter Smith -- The competitiion state and multilateral liberalization of highly skilled migration / Sandra Lavanex -- From migrants to movers: citizenship and mobility in the European Union / Ettore Recchi -- "The best and the brightest": immigrant professionals in the U.S. / Jean Batalova and B. Lindsay Powell -- Disaggregating immigration policy: the politics of skilled labor recruitment in the U.S. / Gary P. Freeman and David K. Hill -- Interests and institutions in skilled migration: comparing flows in the IT and nursing sectors in the U.S. / Jeannette Money and Dana Zartner Falstrom -- Symbolic analysts or indentured servants? Indian high-tech migrants in America's information economy / Paula Chakravartty -- Students without borders? migratory decision-making among international graduate students in the U.S. / Katalin Szelényi -- Wired for work: highly skilled employment and global mobility in mobile telecommunications multinationals / Ödül Bozkurt -- London as Eurocity: French free movers in the economic capital of Europe / Adrian Favell

2023-06-28