Issues in Skilled Migration: A Case study of Skilled Migration from India to Singapore

Falling fertility leading to population ageing is causing serious labour shortages in developed nations. Further, globalization, needs of knowledge economy and compulsion to maintain international competitiveness are fueling skilled migration. Question arises what role skilled migration can play in moderating effects of population ageing and maintaining competitiveness of knowledge economies as well as provide direct and indirect benefits to sending nations. This study explores these issues through quantitative and qualitative field data collected from Indian skilled professionals working in Singapore in various sectors. Importance of study lies in the fact that India skilled migrants play very a very important role in Singapore and to the best of knowledge of researcher; this is the only study on them based on field data. The findings show that demographic constraint faced by Singapore and its need to attract foreign talent along with India‘s advantages in supplying cost effective globally competent manpower provides strong complementarities between two countries which are being exploited for mutual gain, particularly in a regional cooperation framework. Skilled Indian migrants are also contributing to home country through remittances, skills transfer, new technology and new ideas, and institutional development.