Highly Skilled Migrant Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: A Literature Review

<p dir="ltr">For the last three decades, highly skilled migration has become a vital component of global migration management and immigration policy debates. However, there has not been much knowledge on the decision-making dynamics of highly skilled migrants, particularly under the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and its aftermath. The purpose of this paper is to offer an overview of the literature on highly skilled migration and decision-making and subsequently, to develop an analytical framework of the Highly Skilled Migrant Decision-Making under Uncertainty (DEMA) project. The DEMA project aims to produce new first-hand knowledge of how the pandemic has shaped migration-related decision-makings (i.e., to come, stay, delay, or speed up immigration moves) among prospective highly skilled migrants, both within Canada and outside Canada. Our analysis shows that highly skilled migration decision-making – where, when, and how to move – is a multi-stage and multidimensional process. Nevertheless, there has not been much focus in migration literature on how macro (i.e., social, economic, and political), meso (i.e., networks and culture), and micro (i.e., family situation and individual elements such as hope, aspirations, and imaginaries) factors shape decision-making processes of highly skilled migrants and their families. Furthermore, there has been a lack of knowledge about how social categories of differences, such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, and age, influence highly skilled migrants’ decision-making. The DEMA project hopes to fill these significant knowledge gaps.</p>