International migration of scholars and students: state policy potential

The article considers the key factors of increasing international migration of experts and students, the basic trends, evaluation of socio-economical onsequences of migration of brains and classification of state policy measures in this area. The key factors determining the increase of migration of brains include: emergence of knowledge-based economies, development of globalization trends in higher education and research and development area, widening application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in these areas. The article says that sci-tech human resources from all over the world are still brain-drained by the richest states, first of all, the USA, Canada, Australia and Great Britain, though the last decades saw experts massive return to their homelands. Foreign scholars are fully engaged in innovative businesses, including transnational ones, and widely employed with research and educational centers. The records show an increase of foreign nationals among the researches working for the developed countries. Besides the scientific scope, they greatly contribute to high technology areas of economy and social infrastructure, shaping the basic trends in social development, mainly, in ICT and healthcare system. An increase of educational internationalization and providing educational services facilitates an upsurge in student migration, which is considered to be the most rapidly growing one in human migration. The last thirty years witnessed a number of foreign students in the world increasing by 4.5 times and reaching the amount of 2.73 million by 2005. The developed countries, such as the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France and Australia are the basic destinations of student migration. These countries show a great number of foreign students, study ing natural and technical sciences, including agriculture and engineering. The vast majority of foreign students study general theoretic courses in universities and higher education institutions. However, a considerable number of foreign students do postgraduate studies, particularly, for the scarce professions in host countries, such as agriculture, engineering, mathematics and computer science. Despite their relatively small amount in overall migration flows, the influx of qualified experts and students makes valuable contribution to science and innovative potential development of the host countries, an increase in their hi-tech sectors and knowledge-intensive service industries, such as education, healthcare, communications etc. and economy on the whole. The significant contribution of foreigners in sci-tech development of the USA is clearly indicated by a great number of award winners, including the Nobel Prize, among European and Asian scholars. Generally, foreign researches are characterized by higher capacity, as compared to their local colleagues, which manifests itself in a greater number of academic publications, completed theses and thesis defenses, and quite often foreign scholars earn a higher wages. Income derived from providing educational services is an important part of the services exported by the developed countries. Foreign students are not only the source of extra financing for higher education institutions, but also facilitate their structural modernization and development, emergence of new curricula, trends and departments. If the consequences of foreign experts and students admission are unambiguously beneficial, then the profits of the sending countries are not that clear. However, the recent researches, registering a high ercentage of returning migrants, emphasize a beneficial impact of brain drain on donor states. There is a real competitive struggle for certain groups of students and experts began in the world. Universities, research centers and sci-tech companies located in the USA, Canada and Great Britain struggle more desperately to gain the most gifted foreigners. In order to attract foreign brains, incite experts and students going abroad for education to come back, and stop brain drain the majority of governments are striving to make their living conditions more attractive and professional advancement more promising within their territories. And to achieve the desirable goals the governments, first of all, pursue certain migration, sci-tech development and education policies.