Managing the global talent pool: Sovereignty, treaty, and intergovernmental networks

Better management of the international migration of highly skilled people may provide a way to expand the global talent pool as well as to allow existing talent to be used more efficiently. After reviewing contemporary scholarship on the knowledge economy and on migration patterns, this paper considers three broad approaches to governance of migration at the global level: sovereignty, treaty, and intergovernmental networks. Each approach has strengths and weaknesses, with respect to the key objectives of facilitating knowledge spillovers from receiving countries to source countries and expanding investment in the development of talent in source countries. The complementarities among the three approaches reveal the promise of a workable international regime in this vital policy area.