High and Low Skilled Migrants on the Move

Brain drain could drain the high-income economy

This special issue, dedicated to the theme of "Migration, Diaspora and the Brain Drain Cycle: Malaysia and Its Neighbours", has seven fine articles, six of which are specific to the country. In order to whet appetites, I [the author] have tried to condense the main takeaways of these six articles.

Immigration Stalls as Opportunities Wane on U.S.-Mexican Border

States in the southern and southwestern U.S. have passed immigration crackdowns, and the Supreme Court signaled last week it might be prepared to support an Arizona law requiring police to check the status of anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. Yet rather than an invasion, Cox’s experience reflects an April 24 report by the Pew Hispanic Center, which concluded that the flow of migrants came to a “standstill” between 2005 and 2010, and may even have reversed.

Handbook for Diaspora Engagement Policies

The International Organization of Migration (IOM) published a terrific handbook for diaspora engagement policies today: "Developing a Road Map for Engaging Diasporas in Development: A Handbook for Policymakers and Practitioners in Home and Host Countries."

In particular, chapter 4 reviews 77 diaspora-engaging institutions in 56 countries. I can see an early draft of a dissertation proposal coming from it.

Resource Page

I've constructed a new section in this blog that aggregates links to important databases or methods tools/websites that have been helpful for my own research.


Current databases cover migration, remittances, inequality, democracy, and labor mobility. Methods websites include R related statistical packages or advice. Resources for LaTeX, Sweave, and JAGS will be expanded soon.


Essentially, the page serves only as an aggregator. I have no intention to promote certain websites over others, so the short blurbs that follow the links are usually excerpts taken from the actually website.


Feel free to let me know if I'm missing any helpful resource that you know of. I would love to add it to the list.

MPSA 2012

Dan McDowell and I will be presenting our paper “Redback Rising: Bilateral Swap Arrangements and China’s Strategy for RMB Internationalization,” at MPSA this Saturday (April 14). The panel takes place at 4:35pm.


It's still an early draft, but we are quite excited about it. Feel free to drop by to say hi or offer comments if you are there, we would really appreciate it!

Taiwanese Emigration, Immigration, and Circulatory Migration

Taiwanese Immigrants in the United States.

Almost one-quarter of Taiwanese immigrants lived in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA metro area in 2010.

Tradition and Progress: Taiwan's Evolving Migration Reality.

According to the Taiwan Ministry of the Interior (MOI), in 2007 there were 24,700 marriages between Taiwanese grooms and non-Taiwanese brides, representing 18.3 percent of all marriages and bringing the total number of foreign-born wives in Taiwan to 372,741. By the end of January 2010, the stock of foreign-born wives had increased to 401,685, with the majority from China (65.5 percent), Vietnam (20.5 percent), and Indonesia (6.5 percent).

Here, There, and Back Again: A New Zealand Case Study of Chinese Circulatory Transmigration.

Cultural anthropologists like Nina Glick Schiller and Linda Basch have pointed out that migrant networks, social relations, and cultural ties traverse both home and host societies. Their national boundaries "are brought together into a single social field." In the case of the new Chinese migrants, the origin-country governments' encouragement of long-distance nationalism is also a factor that should be recognized. In his study of Asians in Australia, demographer Graeme Hugo has noted, for example, "In Asia, Taiwan has had one of the most comprehensive reverse brain drain programs."

Tips for Refereeing and Discussing Papers

How to referee an academic paper?
How to be a discussant on a seminar paper?

(HT: Chris Blattman)

Individual Level H-1B Visa Data

H-1Bs: How Do They Stack Up to US Born Workers?

Combining unique individual level H-1B data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and data from the 2009 American Community Survey, we analyze earnings differences between H-1B visa holders and US born workers in STEM occupations. The data indicate that H-1Bs are younger and more skilled, as measured by education, than US born workers in the same occupations. We fail to find support for the notion that H-1Bs are paid less that observationally similar US born workers; in fact, they appear to have higher earnings in some key STEM occupations, including information technology.