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Main Content
The Economy of International Student Migration
Why the EU Needs to Do More?
International student mobility is one of the few forms of migration welcome in host countries. Unlike other pathways, such as low-skilled labour migration or asylum seekers, students are considered to be an asset for the country in question.For example, in 2008 the UK introduced a point-based system focusing on tiers of immigration. Student migration is, next to high-skilled immigrants, welcome.
Why are students encouraged to emigrate?
Of course, from the countries’ perspective, international students are mainly a positive occurrence. They come, stay for a longer period and leave money behind. In addition, they are young and bring new and innovative ideas. Students are also less motivated by economic reasons – for them, factors such as language skills, the nature of the country and other leisure or educational elements, play a more important role in choosing the country.
In 2003, only two percent of the world’s 10 million students were enrolled in a university programme abroad. This is a small number, considering scholarships such as the European Erasmus or Socrates programmes. Without a doubt, questions of cost, motivation and organisation decide whether or not a student decides to study abroad. One needs to differentiate between temporary international student migration (such as Erasmus) and full-time student migration (finishing a whole degree abroad, for example).
Many Western countries have decided to encourage international student migration by offering them attractive conditions they often cannot find in their home countries. Especially engineers, scientists and computer specialists are welcomed. Often, they emigrate from Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Russia) or from South East Asia (India). This is part of a bigger scheme based on the presumption that a country can only profit from highly skilled students. First, the (future) fiscal balance is certainly affected. In the long run, students will pay taxes in the host country. Furthermore, students tend to be young – thus, high-income nations with low or even negative population growth consider migration in general to be a means to ‘resolve’ the problem of supporting an ageing population. Besides this dynamic, students are not only young, they also tend to be highly skilled – two aspects host countries are especially keen to utilise.
Undoubtedly, international student migration can accelerate technical progress in an economy. This is why countries actively look for highly skilled students and sometimes even pay their fees. In 2006, more than 35 percent of Ph.D. scientists and engineers in the U.S. were foreign born. This is linked to the USA’s general level of innovation growth. Additionally, this is one of the most attractive reasons for a country to encourage international student migration. The European Union is aware of this, but has not been able to trigger similar rates so far. It concentrates too much on temporary programmes such as Erasmus, instead of long-term postgraduate immigration.
The language situation plays an important part as well as the differences in cultural and educational systems in Europe. Despite the Bologna Process and the introduction of Bachelor and Master programmes in many nations, the countries often prefer to stick to their own system. This is strange, given that a static and inflexible labour force is known to be the EU’s Achilles heel. Furthermore, labour mobility is considered to be crucial for the completion of the internal market. With the financial crisis, unemployment rates have skyrocketed in several countries, affecting heavily the younger labour forces.
It is thus not surprising that member states are afraid to encourage student mobility further. The EU hardly has the competence to initiate change in this area, but given its economic aspect, international student migration should be dealt with more closely. The potential gains ranging from positive tax balances to increasing innovation rates are obvious. But matching the reluctance of the EU’s member states with the budget spent on innovation and technology in general, it is hardly surprising that the EU is, once again, limping behind economies such as the US.