Where Does the U.S. Stand in the International Competition for Talent?

Bogdan State, Stanford University
Mario Rodriguez, LinkedIn Corporation
Dirk Helbing, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)
Emilio Zagheni, Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY)

We investigate trends in the international migration of professional workers by analyzing a dataset of millions of geolocated career histories provided by LinkedIn, the largest online platform for professionals. Our results show a decrease, from 2000 to 2012, in the percentage of professional migrants who have the United States as their country of destination. The pattern holds for persons with Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD degrees alike, and for individuals with degrees from highly-ranked worldwide universities. Our analysis also reveals the growth of Asia as a major professional migration destination during the past twelve years. Although we see a decline in the share of employment-based migrants going to the United States, our results show a recent rebound in the percentage of international students who choose the United States as their destination.