Skills and talent of immigrants: a comparison between the European Union and the United States

Type Working Paper
Title Skills and talent of immigrants: a comparison between the European Union and the United States
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2005
URL http://escholarship.org/uc/item/78t8m1n7
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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