Global Talent: Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea

by Gi-Wook Shin, Joon Nak Choi

Overview

Global Talent seeks to examine the utility of skilled foreigners beyond their human capital value by focusing on their social capital potential, especially their role as transnational bridges between host and home countries. Gi-Wook Shin and Joon Nak Choi build on an emerging stream of research that conceptualizes global labor mobility as a positive-sum game in which countries and businesses benefit from building ties across geographic space, rather than the zero-sum game implied by the "global war for talent" and "brain drain" metaphors.

The book empirically demonstrates its thesis by examination of the case of Korea: a state archetypical of those that have been embracing economic globalization while facing a demographic crisis—and one where the dominant narrative on the recruitment of skilled foreigners is largely negative. It reveals the unique benefits that foreign students and professionals can provide to Korea, by enhancing Korean firms' competitiveness in the global marketplace and by generating new jobs for Korean citizens rather than taking them away. As this research and its key findings are relevant to other advanced societies that seek to utilize skilled foreigners for economic development, the arguments made in this book offer insights that extend well beyond the Korean experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804794336
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	03/18/2015
Series:	Studies of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Gi-Wook Shin is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. Joon Nak Choi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Table of Contents

List of Figures, Maps, and Tables ix

Acknowledgments xi

Chapter 1 Toward a New Model of Engaging Skilled Foreigners 1

Chapter 2 Foreign Students in Korea 30

Chapter 3 Korean Students Overseas 65

Chapter 4 The Korean Diaspora 95

Chapter 5 Expatriate Indians and Korean Engineering 126

Chapter 6 Toward a Global Korea 151

Notes 175

Bibliography 185

Index 195

Editorial Reviews

"Overall, this book offers theoretical lessons for general research on transnationalism and cultural and social capital of highly skilled migrants, even though it focuses most explicitly on business and labor markets. It invites the attention of policy makers and business strategists, who also appear to be its intended audience." —Keumjae Park, International Migration Review

"Advanced economies like Korea face a growing mismatch between low birth rates and increasing demand for skilled labor. Shin and Choi use original, comprehensive data and a global outlook to provide careful, accessible and persuasive analysis. Their prescriptions for Korea and other economies challenged by high-level labor shortages will amply reward readers of this landmark study."—Mark Granovetter, Professor of Sociology, Stanford University

From the Publisher

"Advanced economies like Korea face a growing mismatch between low birth rates and increasing demand for skilled labor. Shin and Choi use original, comprehensive data and a global outlook to provide careful, accessible and persuasive analysis. Their prescriptions for Korea and other economies challenged by high-level labor shortages will amply reward readers of this landmark study."

Mark Granovetter

"Overall, this book offers theoretical lessons for general research on transnationalism and cultural and social capital of highly skilled migrants, even though it focuses most explicitly on business and labor markets. It invites the attention of policy makers and business strategists, who also appear to be its intended audience."

International Migration Review - Keumjae Park

"Advanced economies like Korea face a growing mismatch between low birth rates and increasing demand for skilled labor. Shin and Choi use original, comprehensive data and a global outlook to provide careful, accessible and persuasive analysis. Their prescriptions for Korea and other economies challenged by high-level labor shortages will amply reward readers of this landmark study."

Stanford University - Mark Granovetter