Livelihood and return migration intention among foreign students in the GCC: an interpretative phenomenological analysis
The indigenous skilled man-power shortfall in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a known phenomenon. Efforts at tackling this problem have witnessed policy reforms targeted at human capital development via qualitative education at all levels. In the interim, the GCC countries rely on expatriat...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/26777/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/26777/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/26777/1/11._GRM2012-Abideen_Adewale.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/26777/4/27_Workshop_4_-Migration_-_Fargues_and_Shah.pdf |
| Summary: | The indigenous skilled man-power shortfall in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is
a known phenomenon. Efforts at tackling this problem have witnessed policy reforms
targeted at human capital development via qualitative education at all levels. In the
interim, the GCC countries rely on expatriates to fill the gap. This option may only
work in the short term. This may be so given the growth rate of the GCC and the
ageing and competition factors vis-à-vis skilled workers from the developed
countries. A longer term policy option explored in this paper, and as suggested in
some extant migration literature, therefore, is to attract talented students from the Less
Developed Countries (LDC), train and retain them as a complement to indigenous
skilled man-power. It is presupposed that the initial brain drain this would cause in the
sending country would transform to brain gain upon migration return. However, it
may be overstretching assumptions that the livelihood opportunities in the host
countries align with the aspiration of the foreign students, thereby, making them not
to return immediately after their studies. This study presents a phenomenological
analysis of the various adjustment issues faced by foreign students in the GCC
countries. Elicited by the need to fill an apparent qualitative research gap particularly
in the GCC context this study is aimed at unraveling the livelihood strategies of the
foreign students and the implications for their return migration intention in their own
personal accounts. Data collected via a semi-structured interview are transcribed
verbatim, subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis based on a constant
comparative approach, and arranged into themes upon which the results are presented.
The themes that emerge in the analysis are discussed in depth and policy
recommendations offered |
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