Indian Skilled Migration and Development

This topical volume offers new empirical evidence on Indian skilled migrants living in European countries, which have become important destinations in the global competition for talent, and on returnees in India. Making use of an interdisciplinary and multi-level analytical framework, which simultaneously includes diaspora interventions and return migration as its main channels of participation, the studies included in this volume offer original insights into the dynamics of skilled migration from India and its effects. The chapters highlight the determining factors required to channel possible contributions towards broad-based development and they suggest policy options for the home and host countries.

Skilled migration has emerged as a major theme in the migration and development nexus in recent years, and this has led to an increase in studies that contemplate foreign-based skilled individuals from the perspective of their potential contributions to their countries of origin, either through diaspora interventions or their eventual return. India is a paradigmatic case, given the significant presence of Indian skilled professionals and students in industrialised countries and the established positive vision of their influence on the socioeconomic progress of the country through transfers of knowledge and skills, investment and financial remittances. At the same time, the number of skilled professionals returning to India has also increased, and these returnees bring an accumulation of knowledge and technical abilities, financial resources and entrepreneurial ventures, which are susceptible to generating changes in the local context. However, the creation of benefits depends on several factors, mostly associated with structural conditions and opportunities in the countries of destination and origin concerned.

The volume critically discusses the above issues in the context of skilled migration from India to Europe and will be useful for academics and policy makers interested in migration studies and development issues.