MIGRATION AND HUMAN CAPITAL: IMPLICATIONS OF THE PANDEMIC CRISIS FOR ITS ACCUMULATION Текст научной статьи по специальности «Экономика и бизнес»

ОRIGINAL PAPER

DOI: 10.34022/2658-3712-2021-42-1-126-134 УДК 314.74

JEL F22, J23, J24, J28, J61, J68, O15

MIGRATION AND HUMAN CAPITAL: IMPLICATIONS OF THE PANDEMIC CRISIS FOR ITS ACCUMULATION

M.V. Shagalkina

St. Petersburg State University, Graduate School of Management, Saint Petersburg, Russia

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6569-3619

ABSTRACT

Migration is a great challenge of our time: people freely move across borders in search of better economic, career, and social opportunities. But besides being a challenge, migration brings benefits to countries and organizations around the world. This is due to the migration of highly skilled professionals fueling economies with human capital, which is recognized to drive economic performance, productivity, innovation, and competitive advantages of both firms and countries. This makes human capital and its carriers, i.e. talents, a scarce resource, which has led to the so-called "war for talent" worldwide. The ability to attract and retain highly skilled individuals explains the success of companies on a global scale. The aim of this study is to analyze the high-skilled migration from the perspective of the human capital theory, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on human capital mobility, and to review successful examples of immigration policies of both developed and developing economies at the country and firm level.

Keywords: human capital; high-skilled migration; emerging economies; developed countries; performance; competitive advantage; immigration policies; human resource management; COVID-19 pandemic.

For citation: Shagalkina M. Migration and human capital: implications of the pandemic crisis for its accumulation. Social and labor research. 2021; 42(1):126-134. DOI: 10.34022/2658-3712-2021-42-1-126-134.

ОРИГИНАЛЬНАЯ СТАТЬЯ

МИГРАЦИЯ И ЧЕЛОВЕЧЕСКИЙ КАПИТАЛ: ПОСЛЕДСТВИЯ ПАНДЕМИИ ДЛЯ ЕГО НАКОПЛЕНИЯ

М.В. Шагалкина

Магистр, Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, Высшая школа менеджмента, Санкт-Петербург, Россия https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6569-3619

АННОТАЦИЯ

Миграция является вызовом современности - люди свободно пересекают географические границы в поисках лучших экономических, карьерных и социальных возможностей. Но помимо того, что миграция является вызовом, она дает преимущества странам и организациям по всему миру. Целью данного исследования является анализ миграции высококвалифицированных специалистов с точки зрения теории человеческого капитала, влияния пандемии COVID-19 на мобильность человеческого капитала, а также обзор успешных примеров иммиграционной политики как развитых, так и развивающихся стран на уровне страны и фирмы.

Миграция высококвалифицированных специалистов является способом снабжения экономики человеческим капиталом, который, как известно, положительно влияет на экономические показатели, производительность, инновационность и конкурентные преимущества как фирм, так и стран. В результате человеческий капитал и его носители, то есть таланты, становятся редким ресурсом, что привело к «войне за таланты», охватившей многие страны. Умение привлекать и удерживать высококвалифицированных специалистов способствует успеху компаний на глобальном уровне. В то время как развитым странам удается привлекать квалифицированных специалистов из-за рубежа и удовлетворять спрос на

© Шагалкина М.В., 2021

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таланты, страны с развивающейся экономикой проигрывают в этой конкуренции за таланты и становятся источником человеческого капитала для развитых стран. Однако пандемия COVID-19 и ответные меры на нее, в частности ограничения на поездки и закрытие национальных границ, могут повлиять на традиционный способ накопления человеческого капитала и стать возможностью для стран с развивающейся экономикой привлечь репатриантов из развитых стран и удержать местных талантов. Результаты исследования показали, что для привлечения международных талантов с высоким уровнем человеческого капитала местным компаниям и правительственным организациям в странах с развивающимися экономиками необходимо внедрять разнообразные иммиграционные политики и практики, которые обеспечивают благоприятные экономические, карьерные и исследовательские возможности для прибывающих высококвалифицированных специалистов и, таким образом, создают сильный национальный бренд работодателя. Помимо этого было выявлено, что проблема утечки умов из развивающихся стран может стать отправной точкой для потенциального снабжения стран человеческим капиталом через инвестиции в образование, создание эффективных иммиграционных политик и активное привлечение ранее эмигрировавших в развитые страны высококвалифицированных специалистов - репатриантов. При этом, поскольку во время пандемии и связанного с ней кризиса мигранты уязвимы перед потенциальной потерей работы, заработной платы, медицинского страхования и доступа к медицинским услугам по сравнению с местными жителями, пандемия может спровоцировать приток репатриантов, в том числе высококвалифицированных, в развивающиеся страны. И поскольку репатрианты по результатам международного опыта приумножили свои знания и навыки, они могут внести вклад в развитие местных компаний и страны в целом. В данном случае, задача правительств и организаций из развивающихся стран - это создание стимулов, а также программ и практик для привлечения и, что немаловажно, удержания репатриантов.

Выводы, сформулированные на основании данного исследования, а также примеры успешной работы по привлечению человеческого капитала других стран, могут быть полезны как для бизнеса и органов власти, так и для научного сообщества. Дальнейшие исследования необходимы для выявления эффективных организационных практик управления человеческими ресурсами для привлечения и удержания международных талантов, включая репатриантов. Более того, важно в будущих исследованиях провести анализ влияния пандемии на миграцию, а именно на миграционные потоки, миграционные намерения индивидов, а также на организации, которые в период до пандемии в большой степени зависели от потока международных специалистов.

Ключевые слова: человеческий капитал; миграция высококвалифицированных специалистов; растущие экономики; конкурентное преимущество; иммиграционная политика; управление человеческими ресурсами; пандемия COVID-19.

For citation: Шагалкина М. Миграция и человеческий капитал: последствия пандемии для его накопления. Социально-трудовые исследования. 2021;42(1):126-134. DOI: 10.34022/2658-3712-2021-42-1-126-134.

INTRODUCTION

Since the middle of the 20th century, increased international migration has resulted in over 270 million people living in countries other than their countries of origin [1]. Among the reasons are globalization, the openness of economies, and low migration barriers, as well as the growing knowledge intensity of countries' production and development [2; 3]. Countries themselves create incentives specifically for the relocation of highly skilled individuals, offering them attractive economic and career opportunities in exchange for their human capital [2; 4] which is recognized to have a positive impact on the economic and non-economic performance and competitive advantages of both firms and countries [26]. This has led to the so-called "war for talent" worldwide [7].

This competition for the highly skilled individuals makes countries develop diverse immigration policies and organizational strategies that could help them

to accumulate as much human capital as possible [2; 4]. Developed countries are successful in attracting skilled specialists from abroad which allows them to support the appropriate supply of talents. As such, the United States, Canada, and Australia together host around 70 % of all the highly skilled migrants [2]. Emerging economies are still less successful in talent attraction, but they recognize the importance of human and social capital for their future growth and development [4; 8]. For instance, China is developing its own strategy for attracting talents, and as one of the directions, it works with returnees - a substantial share of previously emigrated Chinese students and employees returned to their home country given economic and career opportunities [9].

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread globally, it brought severe changes to most of the economic and social activities of people and triggered the economic crisis in most countries [10; 11]. Consequences of the

pandemic for migration may be long and overwhelming as travel restrictions suspended international mobility for an uncertain period of time [11; 12]. This may change the human capital accumulation model which relied heavily on highly skilled mobility in the pre-pandemic times. However, as many countries reopened their national borders for their own nationals and residentsl [12], emerging economies may see the opportunity to attract returnees in particular from developed countries who possess high levels of human and social capital, international experience, and thus may contribute to the economic development and innovation of their home countries [9; 13].

The purpose of this paper is to analyze highly skilled migration from the perspective of human and social capital theories, governmental and organizational policies for human capital accumulation, and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on international mobility.

HIGH-SKILLED MIGRATION AND HUMAN CAPITAL

Human capital is the basis for the sustainable development of countries and poverty reduction [14]. It is an intangible asset consisting of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience of an individual [15; 16]. Human capital may be general and firm-specific [15; 17]. The general one represents the result of individual investment in education and professional training [18]. Firm-specific human capital is mainly a result of firms' investment in employees in the form of knowledge of the firm's internal processes, technologies, routines, or professional relationships [17]. Development of both types of human capital is recognized to bring advantages at different levels. At the individual level, human capital makes it possible to realize the potential, increase earnings, and improve the quality of life [15]. At the country level, it contributes to technological innovation, economic growth, a rise of entrepreneurial activities, increased competitiveness and prosperity in the long term [14; 16]. Benefits of human capital at the organizational level include improved performance, competitive advantage [17; 19], innovation and increased productivity [15; 20].

In addition to human capital, talents have a high level of social capital [3; 21] represented by a network of relationships with other individuals, which develops and enhances the positive effect of human capital [18; 22; 23; 24]. Social capital provides its carriers with an access to valuable resources and business

1 IATA Travel Centre. COVID-19 Travel Regulations Map. Available from: https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/world.php.

contracts, information and knowledge benefits [23]. Social capital facilitates the transfer of knowledge, improves absorption capacity, innovation, and as a result the performance of firms [22; 24].

The positive influence of human capital on diverse individual, organizational, and country-level outcomes results in high demand for highly skilled specialists, i.e. talents who are the carriers of human capital for organizations [2]. Talents, in turn, are free to choose the best employer making firms compete for essential human capital resources [4; 17] leading to the global "war for talent" [7] and frequent relocation of human capital between geographic boundaries [3]. Traditionally, talent migration is explained by inequality between countries in terms of their economic, social or political environment, caused by globalization processes [25; 26]. Migration decisions of highly skilled individuals include efficiency considerations -acquiring knowledge and skills where their cost is low and then applying the obtained human capital where it is highly rewarded for [26; 27]. If talents' expectations for earnings and career opportunities are not met in their home countries, they may consider migration [28]. Highly skilled individuals are more migratory in comparison to low-skilled [26; 29] as they have higher expectations in terms of wage, welfare, and career development [26; 28; 30; 31]. It means that they migrate in search of a higher return on investment in their human capital [32; 28], often choosing developed countries as a destination [33; 29].

The growing demand for high-skilled individuals in OECD countries, caused by an increasing level of knowledge intensity of their activities and a lack of local talents [2], is forcing these countries to attract talents from abroad [33; 34], often from developing countries such as China, India, Mexico, Russia, and others, where the demand and career and development opportunities are worse than in the developed countries [34]. The share of international migrants residing in high-income countries increased from 43 % to 60 % between 1960 and 2010 [1]. Wherein, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia have managed to attract up to 70 % of the highly skilled individuals, mainly due to their effective immigration policies aimed at accumulating human capital [2]. While high-skilled migration can help countries to accumulate the necessary human capital, it also poses challenges for local organizations and policymakers to successfully integrate and retain new talent [3; 35].

This situation leads to an uneven distribution of highly skilled individuals across countries, cities, and regions [33]. Developed countries succeed in this

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competition as they implement various policies and practices towards global talent attraction and retention [4]. Whereas emerging economies often serve as a source of human capital for the developed countries losing knowledge resources and opportunities for improving their performance and competitiveness [3; 33]. Thus, retaining and attracting talent is a major challenge for developing countries [32].

BRAIN DRAIN, BRAIN GAIN, AND BRAIN CIRCULATION

The balance between inward and outward high-skilled migration leads to such effects as brain drain, brain gain, and brain circulation [36]. Brain drain may be defined as a net outflow of skilled professionals from one country [37], or a decrease of per capita human capital in a home country [16]. More often this phenomenon concerns developing countries where economic, social, and political conditions do not satisfy local talents resulting in their increased willingness to emigrate to more developed countries [4; 33; 31]. Brain gain is the net inflow and increase of human capital in a country [27; 38]. Brain circulation is a positive phenomenon associated with the return migration of highly skilled individuals who previously migrated to developed countries [39].

There are controversial views on brain drain effects on the countries of origin [36]. One stream of research argues that brain drain has negative consequences for the originating developing countries due to the loss of human capital [28; 36] and the consequent erosion of knowledge networks [40], decreased country competitiveness, reduction of per capita growth [4], and negative welfare effects [41; 42]. According to another point of view, in the longrun, the brain drain leads to positive effects for both source and destination countries [36; 43]. Source countries observe flows of remittances from migrants and return migration [39; 43]. For instance, by extensive use of national policies that offer economic opportunities for returning specialists with unique knowledge and skills, China has attracted nearly 84 % of Chinese students who obtained their degrees in developed countries by 2017 [9]. This active work with returnees is one of the factors explaining China's extensive growth and international business expansion [9]. The indirect effect is the investment in human capital development that local governments make to prevent the loss of talent and their human capital [36]. This means that the brain drain stimulates the development of the country's education system and immigration policy [2; 4] and ultimately leads to the brain gain or brain

circulation, i.e. a win-win outcome for both source and destination countries [43].

GLOBAL HIGH-SKILLED MOBILITY ACTORS

As the rates of international migration are increasing each year, countries observe a wide variety of labor market participants other than locals [1; 3]. With respect to highly skilled specialists with distinctive levels of human and social capital, the three categories are of particular interest for international business and human resource management research -immigrants, expatriates, and returnees [2; 3; 9]. Each group has its own characteristics and peculiarities which should be taken into account when developing policies and practices aimed at attraction, retention, development, and integration.

Highly-skilled immigrants

Immigrant is "an individual who moves into a country for the purpose of settlement" [44], i.e. they consider becoming legal residents in a chosen destination country [3]. Immigrants leave their home countries in search of better career opportunities, wages, and living standards [26; 44]. Besides, they may have families and/or friends in a chosen location, which facilitates their decision to migrate [44]. Incoming highly skilled migrants may be sources of human, role models for local employees, and they can compensate for underinvestment into local human capital development under conditions of favorable immigration policies [45]. Immigrants tend to choose for immigration countries where their expertise will be relevant, applicable, and may benefit them in their purposes [3]. Immigrants do not always stay permanently in a host country and they are free either to move to yet another country or to return to their motherland and hence become a returnee2 [3] promoting brain circulation beneficial for all parties [39; 43].

Expatriates

Expatriates may be defined as highly skilled employees of MNCs going abroad for work temporarily [45]. There are two types of expatriates - assigned (or corporate) and self-initiated [46]. Assigned expatriates are being appointed by their MNC to travel to one of the subsidiaries in order to accomplish a specific task, and self-initiated expatriates take responsibility for their relocations themselves [45; 47].

Researchers highlight three main purposes of expatriation [47]. First, expatriates realize position filling

2 International Organization of Migration. Migration data portal. Available from: https://migrationdataportal.org/.

in subsidiaries or organizations of developing countries where there is a lack of specialists with the necessary skills and competences [48]. Second, expatriation allows for management development throughout organization through international experience and knowledge of foreign businesses [48]. Third, expatriation contributes to the organization's development by making local managers and expatriates familiar with corporate culture, policies, procedures, and best practices and allows mutual understanding and consistency in organizational operations [47].

Expatriation is a relatively easy and cheap way to enrich MNCs' subsidiaries and other organizations with knowledge and skills in comparison to investment in learning and training of local employees. This explains a growing trend in the number of expatriates worldwide - with an annual growth rate of almost 6 % there were more than 66 million expatriates in 2017 [47].

Returnees

Returnees are individuals who have spent a substantial period of time working and/ or studying in a foreign country (often one of the developed countries) and then returned back to their motherland to continue career development [13; 23]. Returnees can either get a top-management position, become entre- preneurs, or regular employees in their home coun- tries. The majority of skilled returnees to emerging economies arrive from advanced economies of Euro- pean, North American, and Asia-Pacific regions [49].

Working and studying in a developed country provides access to new knowledge and skills [9; 13; 49] and gives an opportunity to learn a new culture, language, society, markets, technologies, and managerial practices [35]. Organizations from developed countries are usually the pioneers in technological development, managerial practices, and they are more successful and competitive than those from emerging markets [51]. For these reasons, returnees from developed to developing countries, when compared to local employees, possess higher level of both human capital and social capital. Therefore, returnee-entrepreneurs and top-managers are positively associated with organizational performance, innovation, and competitive advantage [17; 23]. Returnee-led firms in emerging markets are more successful in internationalization, investment activities, and export performance [13; 35; 51]. Returnees' recruiting maybe regarded as a learning mechanism and a strategic source of knowledge and innovation for organizations in emerging market firms [24; 50; 51].

GOVERNMENTAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES FOR ATTRACTING AND MANAGING HIGHLY SKILLED MIGRANTS

In order to accumulate human capital in a country, countries seek to increase the share of highly skilled professionals in their labor markets to drive performance, technological progress, and competitive advantage [2]. It may be achieved by creating favorable environment and developing diverse immigration policies, diaspora networks, and special firmlevel practices [2; 3; 4]. This is especially relevant for emerging economies because they are still in a catchup position with respect to developed countries in terms of technological, social, and economic development. In this case, developed countries' policies and practices of human capital accumulation may be used as a benchmark for developing economies [2].

Immigration policies of the USA, Australia, Canada, and the UK contribute to the talented specialists' accumulation, retention, and integration making them attractive destinations for highly skilled individuals3 [2]. They demonstrate a strong national employer brand - the image of a country as a safe, well-managed, tolerant, inclusive, and fair employer in terms of reward [52]. These countries implement two different types of immigration systems - merit-based (or point-based) and employer-driven [2]. In a merit-based system, the potential immigrants are being screened based on their education, language skills, qualifications, and experiences [2] as well as the presence of the applicants' relatives and their status in a destination country [53]. The employer-driven system implies that firms in a country select themselves highly skilled specialists they need, who should also have certain education level, skills, and qualifications and will be screened by the government [2; 53]. Canada and Australia use mostly merit-based, whereas the USA - employer-driven [2]. The advantage of the employerdriven system is in its immediate employability of talents which is beneficial for both immigrants and firms - while the former do not waste time for job search, the latter get the labor that fits their needs and requirements [2].

Emerging economies struggle to compete with developed countries in talent attraction and serve as a source of talent for developed countries [33]. However, they recognize the importance of human and social capital for their economic and technological development and take action towards talents attraction, and

3 The Global Talent Competitiveness Index. 2018. The Global Tal-

ent Competitiveness Index 2018. INSEAD. Available from: https:// www.insead.edu/sites/default/files/assets/dept/globalindices/ docs/ GTCI-2018-report.pdf.

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retention [2; 4]. To turn the brain drain into brain circulation emerging economies try to work on policies for the attraction of returnees as a source of important human capital [2]. One of the examples is China's favorable policies towards the attraction of previously emigrated Chinese specialists and students [9]. To attract returnees back, developing countries offer them opportunities for career development, access to research funds and support for science, high wages, and favorable working conditions [4; 27]. Moreover, organizations of the IT sector in such countries as Taiwan and China adapt their strategies and management to the global competitive level in order to retain local talents and reduce emigration rates to the United States [39].

THE EFFECT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON HUMAN CAPITAL MOBILITY

The global "war for talent" and human capital accumulation through international migration were possible provided the possibility of free movement. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic began and invaded daily activities, most countries closed their national borders indefinitely [10; 54; 55]. Thus, international mobility has been suspended and migration flows are expected to decline [11]. The expatriation growth rate observed before the pandemic [57] is unlikely to continue [54]. Since highly skilled migrants and expatriates are important sources of human capital for developed countries [2], travel restrictions threaten their ability to satisfy the demand for skills. The demand may be only partially met by the digital technologies and available solutions for online conferencing (e.g., Skype, Zoom, etc.) as tacit knowledge is being transferred more effectively through personal communication between people [10; 54]. Thus, the cost of knowledge will increase [10].

While the travel restrictions are imposed, the return migration is possible as some countries left national borders open for their nationals and residents [11; 12; 56]. The list includes both developed and developing countries such are Russia, China, Brazil, and India4. This time is a unique opportunity for emerging economies to attract and retain their highly skilled returnees who, at this time of uncertainty and instability may decide to come back to their countries of origin [11; 57] motivated by the push and pull factors [58]. During this time of the pandemic and related crisis, migrants are vulnerable to potential loss of a job, salary, health insurance, and access to healthcare

4 IATA Travel Centre. COVID-19 Travel Regulations Map. Available from: https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/world.php.

services compared to locals [11; 57]. Furthermore, lockdowns made face-to-face interactions and meetings between people unavailable which affected mental health and could cause feeling of exclusion of migrants in host countries [57]. As developed countries are characterized by higher standards of life and consequent high prices for housing, essential goods and services, migrants may be motivated by those push factors and decide to return to their motherlands [11; 57]. Among the pull factors are family reasons, safety and easier access to healthcare services, lower cost of life in home countries [11]. Under these circumstances, emerging markets face an opportunity to attract and accumulate returnees and their valuable human and social capital. Ultimately, countries can turn brain drain into brain circulation [39]. This opportunity also points to the importance of policymakers and local organizations to design special policies and programs which can attract returnees, engage them and integrate into economic activities back home. From the organizational side, effective human resource management practices and global talent management should be implemented for selection, training and development, and retention of returnees.

To provide an example for the above discussion, it is worth demonstrating the case of New Zealand although it is not an emerging economy. New Zealand is one of the countries experiencing brain drain with a large share of its population living and working abroad in search of higher wages and career opportunities. As the country allowed their national and residents to cross national borders during the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 50,000 New Zealanders returned since March, and the number is expected to increase depending on the length of the pandemic and related to it crisis. Safety is one of the reasons as New Zealand managed to prevent mass virus spread inside the country due to fast and effective governmental response. Experts say that the return of highly skilled nationals might bring many benefits to New Zealand as these valuable returnees can share knowledge, skills, and social capital they obtained during their stay overseas. Once returnees arrive, the country's government and companies should provide opportunities for those carriers of international human capital and social capital to find appropriate jobs.5

The pandemic may also contribute to the decrease of high-skilled outflows from countries. As the travel restrictions are imposed, the potential highly-skilled migrants including students may suspend their deci-

5 Frost, N. (n.d.). New Zealand's 'brain gain' boost. Available from: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200827-new-zealands-brain-gain-boost.

sion to migrate and ultimately stay in a home country. As such, local organizations and policymakers may use this chance and integrate local skilled labor, i.e. talents into domestic economic development.

As a result of the analysis of human capital mobility and the effect of the pandemic, a set of potential research questions for future studies may be proposed:

• How will the way of accumulating human capital change after the pandemic?

• Will the pandemic change the attitude of organizations towards the international assignments and digital technologies as substitutes for the physical relocation of expatriates?

• What policies and practices, in particular Human Resource Management and Global Talent Management, will be used by organizations and policymakers to attract and retain human capital?

• How will the pandemic change the motivation of highly skilled individuals towards migration?

CONCLUSION

The aim of this paper was to analyze highly skilled migration from the perspective of human and social capital theories, government and organizational policies on human capital accumulation, and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on international mobility. To attract international talent, countries, together with local firms, are implementing diverse immigration policies and practices that provide favorable economic, career, and research opportunities for incoming highly skilled individuals and thus build a strong national employer brand [2; 52]. Developing countries are also becoming more involved in the creation of attraction and retention strategies similar to that of Western developed countries [2; 9]. Doing so, emerging economies have all chances to turn brain drain into brain circulation, which is beneficial for both home and host countries as it allows for knowledge flow among them [43].

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges and opportunities for countries around the world [10; 11; 55]. As the travel restrictions and border closures were imposed, international migration was suspended [54; 55]. This situation may lead to modification of models of human capital accumu-

lation used by countries. As many developed countries rely on international highly skilled migrants as a source of human capital, the pandemic sets challenges for them. On the contrary, a pandemic crisis is a unique opportunity for countries experiencing a brain drain, especially for emerging economies. Since the national borders of many countries are open for their nationals and residents, there is a possibility for return migration of highly skilled individuals with international experience, distinctive social capital, and knowledge of foreign management practices, technologies, and markets [23]. The inflow of returnees, in turn, may turn the brain drain into brain circulation, which contributes to the development and growth of the economy [39]. Thus, the goal for policymakers and organizations in emerging market economies is to create incentives and develop policies and practices to attract and retain returnees [2; 11; 54].

The research contributes to the theory of highly skilled migration, providing its analysis through the perspectives of human and social capital joining the existing discussion on the topic [2; 3]. Moreover, the study identifies and analyses possible governmental and organizational efforts that can be undertaken by countries to attract highly skilled individuals and accumulate human capital [2]. The study shows that brain drain may be beneficial for developing countries as it motivates organizations and policymakers there to invest in local human capital development as well as to attract returnees back with an increased level of human capital [39; 40]. This is especially relevant during a pandemic crisis, when highly skilled migrants return to their home countries, motivated by push factors of host countries and pull factors of home countries [11; 56].

Future studies may investigate returnees' attraction and retention in the context of developing countries using human resource management practices, in particular global talent management. It is also important to analyze the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on international human capital mobility. Therefore, future studies may benefit from investigation of this situation and its implications for traditional views on migration, human capital accumulation, and the "war for talent".

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Research has been conducted with financial support from SPbSU grant (project No. 41106017).

БЛАГОДАРНОСТЬ

Исследование выполнено при частичной финансовой поддержке СПбГУ (проект № 41106017).

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR / ИНФОРМАЦИЯ ОБ АВТОРЕ

Mariia V. Shagalkina - Master's degree, Saint Petersburg State University, Graduate School of Management, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Мария Валерьевна Шагалкина - магистр, Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет,

Высшая школа менеджмента, Санкт-Петербург, Россия

mari.shag.101@gmail.com

The article was submitted to the editorial office on 12.01.2021; after reviewing on 22.01.2021, it was accepted for publication on 23.01.2021. The author read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Статья поступила в редакцию 12.01.2021; после рецензирования 22.01.2021, принята к публикации 23.01.2021. Автор прочитал и одобрил окончательный вариант рукописи.