Migration, Scientific Diasporas and Development: Impact of Skilled Return Migration on Development in India

The contemporary discourse on migration and development is starting to consider the agency role of both diaspora communities and highly skilled returnees on equal terms, and we can observe how several countries of origin have been introducing special measures both to engage with their diaspora and to attract their highly skilled personnel back home. However, at an academic level very few approaches have focussed their attention on the role that highly skilled returnees and diaspora communities play in home country development in one single study. Our research into Indian skilled migration and return aims to fill this gap by offering an empirical investigation of these two components. While India is seen as a country that has benefitted from reverse flows of investments and the world’s highest remittances and expertise partly acquired abroad, it lacks a comprehensive understanding of the various hindrances and drivers that influence the process of transferring the accumulated knowledge and resources of skilled Indians in destination countries and skilled migrants who return to the home country.