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11 Whitehead J. Dipl. & Int'l Rel. 21 (2010)
Managing Migration for Development: Is Circular Migration the Answer

handle is hein.journals/whith11 and id is 21 raw text is: Managing Migration for Development: Is Circular Migration the Answer? by Ronald Skeldon Migration policy has long been considered the prerogative of the receiving state, and that state alone is responsible for selecting who comes within its borders. For the United States, where immigration has been an integral part of state building, immigration policy fashioned a nation by design.' Today, a more nuanced approach to migration policy has emerged: the idea that population migration can be managed, not just for the benefit of the destination state, but also for the origin states and the migrants themselves. Such an approach brings immigration and development policy into an uneasy dialogue. Officials from State Departments, Home Offices or Ministries of the Interior find themselves in discussions with representatives from development and aid ministries or departments. Migration no longer remains a unilateral matter but emerges as a matter of foreign policy through bilateral and multilateral negotiation among states. The change in the policy environment needs to be placed in the context of new patterns of migration, demography, and economy. Changes in the technologies of transportation and communication have meant that increased numbers of people can move further and faster than ever before. We are certainly in an age of mobilitn, if not migration. In 2009, only 214 million people or 3.1 percent of the world's population crossed international borders, a relatively constant percentage over recent decades.2 More importantly, pressures are building in two specific areas to allow increased numbers of immigrants into countries. First, there is a demand for highly skilled workers to service a globalizing economy, particularly in information technology and finance. A global competition for talent has emerged among the developed economies of the world that the recent financial crisis did not extinguish.3 Second, the aging population of the developed world generates a demand for medical personnel that is not met locally. The result of these two pressures is an exodus of talent that is seen to be essential for the development of the countries of origin of the migration. A simple causation between the exodus of skilled migration and a lack of development is difficult to sustain, as the situation is more complex and cannot be pursued here.4 The majority view, that there is a drain of talent from the Ronald Skeldon is a Professorial Fellow at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, and Senior Research Fellow at the United Kingdom Department for International Development, London. 21 The l1biteheadJournal of Dolomagy and International Relations

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