The Link with a Home Country: A Comparative Analysis of Host Country Environments for Diaspora Engagement

This chapter focuses on host country institutional environments in several countries, and it looks at opportunities to gain relevant expertise. This paper is based on data from the international research project ‘Migration, Scientific Diasporas and Development: Impact of Skilled Return Migration on Development in India’. The chapter includes the results of the perspective of the countries of destination. The countries we have selected are France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland and our aim here is to examine migration policies, labour market regulations and other institutional settings that enable or hinder the links that skilled Indians have with the country of origin. All four of the selected countries have seen a recent increase in immigration from India, and they are changing their policies to attract a more skilled labour force. Until recently countries in continental Europe rarely appeared on the map of mobile Indian professionals. Therefore, this paper aims to fill two gaps in the existing literature: firstly, it examines the conditions of Indian professionals in new destination countries and, secondly, it explores the impact of structural differences between host countries and their ability to provide a fruitful environment for diaspora engagement in home-country development. The chapter is based on a thorough policy review of the institutional environment of the host countries and on in-depth interviews with key experts and skilled migrants, as a means of exploring the conditions of skilled Indians in Europe, specifically in the four case-study countries, and their ability and willingness to get involved in home-country development. Primary data have been collected through an online survey on ‘Skilled Indians abroad and development’, which has been applied to both skilled professionals and postgraduate students of Indian origin who are currently living in the four countries and who are specialised in the fields of information and communication technology, financial and management services, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry or who are in the academic and research field. e n d i s c u s s i n g d i a s p o r a e n g a g e m e n t . N e v e r t h e l e s s , m i g r a n t s w h o a r e s u c c e s s f u l l y s e t t l e d i n t h e i r h o s t c o u n t r y h a v e t h e b e s t c a p a c i t y t o c o n