International students stay on as migrants

By Yojana Sharma. Rich countries have brought in measures to encourage international students to stay and work, with this becoming an increasingly important route to high-skilled migration, according to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
"International students have become a significant group in international migration flows in OECD countries," as a result of "broader policies to attract and retain highly skilled migrants", says the OECD's International Migration Outlook 2010, released in late July.
The annual OECD report for the first time calculated 'stay rates' for students converting their status from student to migrant, often facilitated by host country policies.
For example Finland and Norway have amended their naturalisation laws to take the years of residence as a student into account in assessing eligibility for citizenship, while Canada facilitates permanent residence for international graduates.
Other rich countries allow international students to work during their studies or for a period of up to one year after graduation.
The number of student-to-worker status changes ranges from fewer than 300 in Austria and Belgium to almost 13,000 in Canada, 14,700 in France and 10,000 in Germany and Japan respectively. The figures, based on 2007 status changes, are incomplete but provide a snapshot of the importance of international students for high-skilled migration.
The estimated stay rate for international students studying within the OECD for all reasons is around one in five students on average. This rises to almost one in three in France and Germany.
In France, international students who stay on comprise almost 10% of total immigration, the highest in the OECD. Elsewhere it ranges between less than 1% in Belgium and Austria to around 4% of total immigration in Germany.
Some students change status before graduation by marrying a national of the host country, or are allowed to stay for humanitarian reasons without graduation, but the OECD report suggests that most international students who change their permit status graduated within the host country.
The majority of students (61%) who changed status did so for work-related reasons, according to the OECD, with a higher share of status changes due to marriage in Germany and for humanitarian reasons in Canada.
"International students who stay on as migrants are often highly skilled. Having received their education in the host country, the issues of recognition of qualifications and language knowledge which are often obstacles to high-skilled migration are largely avoided," the report says.
However: "Not all international students go abroad with the intention of staying on as labour migrants. For many, study abroad is part of a strategy to improve their employment chances in the domestic labour market in their home countries."
"For others who stay on, the stay may not be definitive. In some countries international students have the opportunity to work after graduation, but face constraints in career advancement in the companies that have employed them. Restrictions in employment of foreign nationals may also contribute to their leaving after a few years," the OECD says.