Knowledge Workers
In the industrial age, manufactured products are the key economic factor, the more products export, the better the economy. However in the information age, knowledge and skill have higher economic values due to the high demand of these skills to build the knowledge society. Well educated people are needed to create the new wealth, as it is no longer “manufactured products” but the “intellectual products”. Today skilled workers have more opportunities than unskilled labor workers and they receive favorable immigration policies because most developed countries have large demand for their skills. The economic values of information technology, science, and medical could contribute to various uses: A productive resource for high technology industry such as software engineers, a resource for financial industry such as business entrepreneur, a resource for knowledge industry such as scientists, or a resource for service industry such as nurse or medical doctor. The movement of these skills has important effects on the source countries, the receiving countries and the overall global economy as a whole. In source countries, the losing of these skills reduce the opportunities for them to grow economically. In contrast, receiving countries will benefit greatly from an inflow of these skills to strengthen their economy and reduces the shortages of high skills people.
Based on several government researches, developed countries such as the U.S, Europe and Japan need lot of people in information technology, telecommunications and computer science. These are people have university degrees in mathematics, hardware engineering, and software engineering. They can be developers of software and hardware in the information industry or be engaged in high technology industry. The common term is “knowledge workers” and they often receive favourable visas to stay and work in these highly developed countries. Today the main exporter of these “Knowledge workers” is India, the country that accounts for the largest number of scientists and engineers working in the U.S. Almost 85% of Indian students study in U.S universities did not return to India and most of them receive favourable work permits and eventually permanent resident statuses to stay in the U.S. The lost of these skilled workers from their countries is called “The Brain Drain phenomena” and today countries that suffer the most are India, China, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, and Poland.
Scientists and academics professors are another segment of “Knowledge workers”. Most are people who have advanced degrees in physical sciences such as physics, math, and chemistry. If they have good qualifications with many publications they could easily find works in developed countries. Many scientists leave home because of higher salaries, better working facilities; better laboratories and the possibility of increasing their knowledge and interact with other scientists. Based on data collected from seven thousand scientists immigrated to the U.S in past five years, most cited the reasons of low salaries at home, limited professional recognition, poor career prospects and the absence research facilities in the home country. The main pathway through which many scientists come to developed countries is they come as graduate students to get a Master degree, a PhD or pursue a Post-doctoral fellowship. Very few return home after graduated while a majority stays to work in universities, research centers, and industry of the receiving countries.
Another important feature of migration usually not mention in the news is the business entrepreneurs. These are people not necessarily with a lot of formal education but they have lot of money for investment and looking for better opportunities elsewhere than their own country. Because they bring with them a lot of money so their departure is likely to have a significant effect on the economy of their home countries. From historical perspective, successful people like Mellon, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and Rothschild are all business entrepreneurs migrated from Europe to the U.S in the late 19th century. They all brought with them significant capital for investment and help strengthen the U.S economy which were still under-development at that time. Of course, not everyone was rich like them and most business entrepreneurs were small business people who operate restaurants, hotels, provide services as family business. For example, today number of Chinese restaurant in the U.S is about three times the combination of all U.S fast food restaurants (McDonald, Burger-King, and Taco Bell etc.), The carpet and furniture business is a predominance of Turkish, Pakistani, and Moroccan. These immigrant businesses do not require large amounts of financial but they do contribute to the economy of the receiving countries. Occasionally, if conditions are favorable some do return home bringing along capital and contacts developed abroad.
The movement of knowledge workers in the world stresses the importance of education in developing these skills to meet the high global demands. Talented students often choose reputable schools for better-paid careers because the highest return of investment in knowledge goes to the high skilled individuals who graduated from well known universities. In the U.S, there are significant different in salaries of students who graduated from top universities such as Harvard, Stanford, or Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as compare to most state universities. The same can also be found in England, France, Germany and Japan where top universities attract the best students and graduate the best talented workers for the industries. Although skills are very much depending on individual and their motivation but today most industries always prefer private schools over state schools because their curricula are more closely fit the “Practices in the industries” than the “Academic curricula” at state universities. The critical notion of “education as an investment” approach to meet market demand has been criticized by the academic community as they stated that education should focus on “Pure knowledge” to develop “Human being” rather than “Knowledge workers” for the industry. The private schools claimed that education only plays an important role in “providing information to students who educate themselves about their own abilities”. Thus education helps students to gather information about their capacities and potential in the markets after completing their studies. It is an individual choice to go where students see fit to meet their career goals. This debate is still going on and probably will not end in the near future but today the movement of knowledge workers globally has change the balance between developed countries and developing countries significantly. The key notion is people will go to where the opportunities are and with globalization, their mobility are much easier if they have the knowledge and the skills.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
