Intra-company transfers: a European perspective

This chapter addresses the quest for global talent in three European countries - Sweden, Germany and the U.K. - by outlining and comparing immigration policies applying to intra-company transfers of overseas staff. While these transfers occasionally enable global corporations to seamlessly transfer skilled staff across borders, the heterogeneous nature of country-specific visa regulations often jeopardizes the potentials of brain exchanges in the global knowledge economy. To a varying degree, this problem is pertinent in all of the cases we have analyzed. Despite shared similarities in visa regulations and efforts to align immigration laws with the interests of global businesses, it remains uncertain whether existing immigration processes thoroughly facilitate the need for smooth staff transfers among transnational corporations operating within European borders.