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Skills and Talent of Immigrants: A Comparison between the European Union and the United States

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  • Peri, Giovanni
Abstract
The nineties has been a period of increasing migratory flows from less developed countries to industrialized nations. It is instructive to compare the two largest economies in the world, the European Union and the United States, in terms of the magnitude, trends and composition of their migratory inflows. While the two economies are similar in terms of size and level of development, the European Union still lags behind in its ability to attract immigrants and in the degree of internal mobility of its citizens. Moreover we document a general feature that became more prominent during the nineties. While both economies attracted less educated workers (primary school graduates) as well as highly educated workers (college graduates) from less developed countries, the United States have been able to attract “talent” ( i.e. the best among the skilled workers) from all over the world at a rate unmatched by the European Union. In fact the U.S. attracted a large number of talents from the European Union itself during the nineties. This “brain drain” (probably driven by the large economic reward granted by the American economy to scientific, technological and professional talent) is worrisome for the European Union. Its ability to keep pace with the economic growth of the United States depends, in fact, on its ability to compete in the scientific and technological fields.

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  • Peri, Giovanni, 2005. "Skills and Talent of Immigrants: A Comparison between the European Union and the United States," Institute of European Studies, Working Paper Series qt78t8m1n7, Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:bineur:qt78t8m1n7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Lumpe, Claudia, 2017. "Public beliefs in social mobility and high-skilled migration," Ruhr Economic Papers 691, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    2. Mechtenberg, Lydia & Strausz, Roland, 2009. "Migration of the highly skilled: Can Europe catch up with the US?," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2009-048, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    3. Riccardo Crescenzi & A. Rodriguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2007. "The geographical processes behind innovation: a Europe-United States comparative analysis," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0081, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
    4. Lumpe, Claudia & Lumpe, Christian, 2016. "Social Status and Public Expectations: Self-Selection of High-Skilled Migrants," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145685, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Ceren Ozgen & Peter Nijkamp & Jacques Poot, 2012. "Immigration and innovation in European regions," Chapters, in: Peter Nijkamp & Jacques Poot & Mediha Sahin (ed.), Migration Impact Assessment, chapter 8, pages 261-298, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Claudia Lumpe, 2019. "Public beliefs in social mobility and high-skilled migration," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 981-1008, July.
    7. Christian Reiner, 2010. "Brain competition policy as a new paradigm of regional policy: A European perspective," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(2), pages 449-461, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    European studies; finance; IES; immigration; Institute of European studies; international; working paper;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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