E.g., 06/02/2024
E.g., 06/02/2024
Global Skills and Talent Initiative

Global Skills and Talent Initiative

Economic shifts, demographic pressures, technological advances, and difficulties recruiting and retaining workers during the COVID-19 pandemic are buffeting labor markets in rapid and at times unpredictable ways and contributing to growing labor shortages. This, in turn, has fueled discussions about the potential role for immigration.

MPI’s Global Skills and Talent Initiative explores the role immigration can play in addressing current and future workforce needs in rapidly evolving labor markets, with a particular focus on employment-based immigration and the supports that can help immigrants apply their full range of educational and professional skills. MPI’s premise is that decisions about immigration policy need to form part of a broader strategy on skills and talent that takes into account economic, social, and national interest considerations and can bring together government, private-sector, and civil-society viewpoints.

The Initiative’s work aims to answer five animating questions:

  • What role can immigration and immigrant integration play in meeting labor market needs?
  • How can immigration support competitiveness in high-growth sectors?
  • What does the future hold for low-wage immigration?
  • How can governments support and promote immigrant entrepreneurship and innovation?
  • What are the implications of remote work for immigration systems?

Over the last two decades, MPI has produced essential original research and insights on U.S. and global immigration selection systems, recruitment policies, credential recognition, immigrant integration, immigrant contributions to the economy, and workforce development for first- and second-generation immigrants. The work collected here showcases research produced for the Initiative and curates some of the most on-point work that MPI has done over the years with regards to 1) human capital and skills; 2) immigrant selection systems; 3) labor market integration; 4) the future of work; 5) migration partnerships; and 6) harnessing the benefits of immigration.

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Featured

Canada’s Tech Talent Strategy is highly unusual for its explicit targeting of visa holders in another country. Opening a dedicated stream specifically for high-skilled immigrants in the United States who hold an H-1B visa is the latest salvo in a growing global competition for talent—one in which some countries are racing ahead of the United States in terms of policy dynamism, as this commentary explores.

Recent Activity

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Policy Briefs
September 2018
Reimagining Skilled Migration Partnerships to Support Development
By  Kate Hooper
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Reports
March 2018
Strategic Leverage: Use of State and Local Laws to Enforce Labor Standards in Immigrant-Dense Occupations
By  Andrew Elmore and Muzaffar Chishti
Building Partnerships to Respond to the Next Decade’s Migration Challenges
Reports
December 2017
Building Partnerships to Respond to the Next Decade’s Migration Challenges (Transatlantic Council Statement)
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Kate Hooper
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Commentaries
June 2017
Immigrants and the New Brain Gain: Ways to Leverage Rising Educational Attainment
By  Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
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Reports
February 2017
Unlocking Skills: Successful Initiatives for Integrating Foreign-Trained Immigrant Professionals
By  Margie McHugh and Madeleine Morawski
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Reports
February 2017
Firing Up Regional Brain Networks: The Promise of Brain Circulation in the ASEAN Economic Community
By  Jeanne Batalova, Andriy Shymonyak and Guntur Sugiyarto
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Reports
December 2016
Untapped Talent: The Costs of Brain Waste among Highly Skilled Immigrants in the United States
By  Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix and James D. Bachmeier
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Reports
February 2016
Reaching a “Fair Deal” on Talent: Emigration, Circulation, and Human Capital in Countries of Origin
By  Kate Hooper and Madeleine Sumption

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Recent Activity

Policy Briefs
September 2018

Reimagining Skilled Migration Partnerships to Support Development

While partnerships to facilitate skilled migration have had mixed success in the past, the Global Compact for Migration is advancing a new approach that may change this. This policy brief compares this new partnership model with the traditional one, highlighting the questions policymakers will need to answer if they are to encourage mobility, sustain employer engagement, and see development benefits in countries of origin.

Reports
March 2018

Strategic Leverage: Use of State and Local Laws to Enforce Labor Standards in Immigrant-Dense Occupations

In low-wage industries, from construction to food service, labor-standards violations have become widespread—with major consequences for law-abiding employers, state tax revenue, and native-born and immigrant workers. As the federal government steps back from workplace regulation, this report examines the innovative approaches conservative and liberal states alike are using to enforce labor standards more strategically.

Reports
December 2017

Building Partnerships to Respond to the Next Decade’s Migration Challenges (Transatlantic Council Statement)

As destination countries look for ways to better manage migration, many are seeking to build or strengthen collaboration with origin and transit countries. While many partnerships share similar goals—limiting arrivals, returning unauthorized migrants, and addressing migration’s root causes—their outcomes vary. This Transatlantic Council Statement examines the factors behind these mixed results and offers recommendations to make partnerships succeed.

Commentaries
June 2017

Immigrants and the New Brain Gain: Ways to Leverage Rising Educational Attainment

A recent MPI study reveals that 48 percent of recent immigrants to the United States were college graduates, a sharp increase over earlier periods. How can the United States better leverage this brain gain? This commentary outlines some policies that could allow the United States to more fully utilize the professional and academic credentials that highly skilled immigrants have, for their benefit and that of the U.S. economy.

Reports
February 2017

Unlocking Skills: Successful Initiatives for Integrating Foreign-Trained Immigrant Professionals

Nearly 2 million college-educated immigrants in the United States, more than half coming with academic and professional credentials, are unable to fully utilize their professional skills and instead are stuck in low-skilled work or are unemployed. This report explores a range of programs and policies that are providing cutting-edge career navigation, relicensing, gap filling, and job search assistance to remedy this brain waste.

Reports
February 2017

Firing Up Regional Brain Networks: The Promise of Brain Circulation in the ASEAN Economic Community

Given diverging demographics, rising educational attainment and wide variation in economic opportunities, countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are poised to see an expansion of both the demand for and supply of skilled migrants willing and able to move. The convergence of these megatrends represents unique opportunities for human-capital development and brain circulation, as this report explores.

Reports
December 2016

Untapped Talent: The Costs of Brain Waste among Highly Skilled Immigrants in the United States

Nearly 2 million immigrants with college degrees in the United States—one out of every four—are employed in low-skilled jobs or unable to find work. This report explores this skill underutilization, often referred to as brain waste, and offers the first-ever economic costs of underemployment for immigrants in the United States: More than $39 billion in forgone wages and a resulting $10 billion in unrealized tax receipts.

Reports
February 2016

Reaching a “Fair Deal” on Talent: Emigration, Circulation, and Human Capital in Countries of Origin

While skilled migration brings widely acknowledged economic benefits for destination countries and migrants, its impact on countries of origin has been the subject of more debate. Despite a growing consensus that origin countries can benefit from emigration and the circulation of skills, enabling this potential to be fully exploited remains a challenge. This report examines initiatives that develop skills and human capital.

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