Developing and Retaining Human Resources

1
Developing and Retaining Human Resources

• SALISES Workshop Barbados, October 2008
• Peter Healey, James Martin Institute for Science
  and Civilization, University of Oxford
• With thanks to
• The WP2 team, in particular Liz Oliver (Leeds,UK)
  and Liezel de Waal(CREST, Stellenbosch, South
  Africa)
• peter.healey_at_sbs.ox.ac.uk
• www.resist-research.net

2
Context and issues

• Unequal distribution of human resources in ST
• Concern that globalisation will increase this
  inequality through migration
• From brain drain to brain circulation and
  diaspora networks
• Nevertheless, questions remain about
  sustainability of ST labour markets and impacts
  on sending and receiving countries

3
The research teams objectives

• To study human capital flows between EU Member
  States and 'Third Countries'
• To consider the impact this kind of scientific
  mobility has on the individuals and regions
  concerned both in terms of individual equity and
  regional equality
• To identify the appropriate policy and resource
  environment capable of supporting sustainable and
  reciprocal human mobility
• To encourage a closer alignment between policy in
  the fields of science and technology, and
  migration

4
Criteria - the implications of migration for

• the production of scientific knowledge
• the reproduction of knowledge in relation to the
  training of the next generation of researchers
• the sharing of knowledge through transfer across
  national boundaries

5
First Products Background papers on
researchers in the ERA, and Scientific Mobility
and the African Diaspora headlines

• Growing concerns about growing inequalities in
  production use of ST personnel
• Growing relationship between science migration
  policies in EU and AU/NEPAD
• Huge European excess demand under Lisbon agenda
• Statistics poor but suggest high levels of highly
  skilled leaving and limited return
• Reasons complex mix of geo-economic personal
• Too early to judge effects of mitigating policies
  such as diaspora networks and return incentives
  on capacity

6
Policy issues emerging

• Distribution of RD personnel highly skewed
• Europe shows tensions between freedom of
  individual movement and regional
  sustainability concerns in both internal
  external migration policies ethical
  recruitment
• Developed countries using immigration policies to
  attract retain, particularly in priority areas
• Newly industrialising countries losing highly
  skilled countering with diaspora policies (eg
  Indian IT professionals in US) and return
  incentives (eg Malaysia and South Korea)
• In Africa, loss of scientific and health workers
  critical concern for service delivery and
  training of next generation. In some countries
  (eg Botswana) international staff key component
  of workforce also adopting immigration policies
  to attract skills
• Role of centres of excellence to concentrate
  dispersed resources

7
The Six Rs of brain drain policyand a seventh

• Reparation
• Restrictions
• Recruitment
• Return
• Retention
• Resources/Diasporal policies (Lowell, 2003)
• Need to add
• Remittances

8
Second Product Integrated Country Reports

• Available for the four countries studies in
  depth
• Germany
• U.K.
• Turkey
• South Africa
• On the ResIST website

9
Coming products Interviews with Migrant
Scientists (under analysis)

• Purpose to understand motivations of migrant
  scientists themselves
• Four groups of scientists studied
• South African researchers in the health sciences
  in the UK
• South African researchers in the health sciences
  who have returned to South Africa
• Turkish researchers in the physical sciences and
  engineering in Germany
• Turkish researchers in the physical sciences and
  engineering who have returned to Turkey

10
Final outputs four thematic papers

• 1. Legal and Regulatory Frameworks and Scientific
  Mobility
• How understandings of migration processes and of
  highly skilled labour informs the legal framework
• The categorisation of skills and categories of
  migrant eg spouses as highly skilled migrants
  themselves
• How the legal framework surrounding migration
  shapes/constrains effective knowledge transfer
• The administration and cost of visas
• Ability to be mobile post-migration
• Decisions about long-term residence and gaining
  citizenship and their relationship to return and
  engagement with the sending country

11
Final outputs four thematic papers

• 2. Scientific Fields and Resourcing and Migration
  Decisions and Trajectories
• Field specific impacts (specialization vs.
  generalization) on scientific mobility trends
• Comparative experiences on access to research and
  academic resources (including networking,conferenc
  es, knowledge communities) and their differential
  effects on career trajectories
• Different disease demographics (researching the
  aged/ children) and their impacts on different
  clinical fields and migration patterns
• The politics of health sciences migration
  patterns (e.g. mobility of SA health scientists
  during apartheid)

12
Final outputs four thematic papers

• 3. Ethical Dilemmas Individual Human Rights
  versus sustainable development
• Individual rights grounded in principles of
  justice and merit/excellence
• Is mobility a selective process (is it based on
  choice and merit?)
• Does this reduce the quality of human capital
  with implications for development / social
  equality
• If so, on what ethical grounds should we attempt
  to curtail it (to prevent the best leaving)
• Individual Rights
• Free Movement Rights the role of policy in
  lubricating mobility (legal rights/funding
  policies)
• Employment Rights
• Non-discrimination in access to employment in
  receiving countries affirmative action in
  sending?
• Dual career issues
• Collective Responsibilities
• Development Goals
• Retention strategies

13
Final outputs four thematic papers

• 4. Scientific Mobility and Institution Building
  in Science in Developing Countries
• Effects of scientific migration on scientific
  institutions in selected developing countries in
  the South
• Effects of scientific migration on the status of
  scientific communities and the scientific
  profession in developing countries
• The impact of international agencies (their
  policies and funding instruments) on scientific
  mobility and scientific migration patterns

14
Final outputs three targeted policy briefs

• Individual/institutional level policy issues
• Recruitment, selection and employment policies
• Affirmative action policies
• Within and between country policy issues
• Immigration/ scientific visa policies
• Affirmative action policies (RSA) and scientific
  migration
• Internationalization trends (higher education/
  professions)
• Common registration (health practice) policies
• North south policy issues in scientific mobility
• Funding and capacity building policies by
  international (donor) agencies
• The role of regional initiatives (e.g. Nepad in
  Africa)