Return migration

Who comes back and when? Return migration decisions of academic scientists

The net welfare benefit of 'brain drain' of skilled workers depends on their propensity to return to their home countries. I study the return migration decisions of a sample of migrants with very high skills- foreign faculty in research-intensive U.S. universities. Whereas statistical offices typically fail to follow workers who move across borders, I am able to use publicly available academic records to reconstruct career histories. I estimate that only 9% of foreign faculty return to their home country during their professional career. Return occurs early in the career and is responsive to changes in income per capita in the source country.