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N°29, March 2023

Attracting and retaining global talent remains high on the political agenda in OECD member countries as qualified workers constitute key
drivers of economic growth, competitiveness, and innovation. Talent mobility plays a key role in addressing skills shortages and offsetting
negative impacts of workforce ageing. Countries that do not join the global competition for highly skilled migrants risk lagging behind.
This policy brief presents the results of the second edition of the OECD Indicators of Talent Attractiveness, developed by the OECD with
1
support from the Bertelsmann Stiftung . The OECD Indicators of Talent Attractiveness measures the relative attractiveness of countries
from a multidimensional perspective, considering both the migration policy framework and other factors that affect the ability to attract and
retain international talent. After a first edition in 2019, this edition provides an update and allows for comparison of talent attractiveness
over time.
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What is the best country for global talents in the OECD?

Key Findings
 In 2023, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia remains the most attractive OECD
countries for highly qualified workers, followed by Norway. The United Kingdom has seen the
largest improvement in the ranking since 2019, due to among other things having abolished the
quota for highly skilled workers and strong labour market outcomes for migrants.
 The most attractive OECD countries for entrepreneurs remains: Sweden, Switzerland, Canada,
Norway, and New Zealand. They all offer favourable policies for international entrepreneurs to
enter and run a business.
 The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Australia are the top countries
when it comes to international students. These are countries with many top-ranked universities.
However, some smaller countries like Norway are also attractive to students through large
investments in the education sector coupled with attractive living conditions and favourable
migration policies.
 The results highlight the diversity in recent migration policy reforms across countries. While
countries such as the United Kingdom have implemented more favourable policies for qualified
workers, other countries have introduced stricter conditions for international migrants, such as
higher student fees for international students in France and more strict capital requirements for
entrepreneurs in Canada and New Zealand. Migration policy reforms have important impacts
on the relative talent-attractiveness of countries which is reflected in the OECD Talent
Indicators.
 Policy simulations show how much of the talent-attractiveness gap could be addressed by
introducing the most favourable migration policies. Israel, Japan, and Korea are among the
countries that have the most to gain in terms of attractiveness by adapting their policies to the
most favourable standards of the OECD.
 Not regularly revising policies to attract and retain migrants can also lead to a deterioration in
relative attractiveness of a country if other countries with similar conditions are adopting more
favourable policies targeting highly skilled migrants. This underlines the importance of actively
update the policy framework to remain competitive in the global competition for talent.

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Special thanks go to the Fragomen law firm for sharing their data, without which it would not have been possible to
compile these indicators.

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Introduction
As human capital is increasingly central to hampered the recruitment of international talent,
economic development and growth, access to but at the same time highlighted the dependence
global talents has become an important on migrant workers to deliver essential services
determinant of productivity, innovation, and such as health care. The pandemic has also
prosperity. As a result, the global competition for helped accelerating the speed and scale of the
talent is growing with highly skilled workers being digital transformation (see Box 1).
increasingly in a position to choose the best
Secondly, three new countries have become
destination country for themselves and their
members of the OECD since 2019: Colombia,
family. In this competitive environment, OECD
Costa Rica, and Lithuania. These countries will
countries are constantly adapting their
for the first time be included the OECD Talent
immigration policies or programmes to attract
attractiveness ranking.
highly qualified workers, entrepreneurs, and
students from abroad. Furthermore, many countries have revised their
migration policy frameworks targeting highly
To capture strengths and weaknesses in national
skilled migrants in recent years. These reforms
capacity to attract talent, the OECD constructed,
have however not all moved in the same
with the support of Bertelsmann Stiftung, a tool
direction. While some countries have been
aimed at benchmarking capacity to attract and
liberalising policies to enable more highly skilled
retain talented migrants. The first edition of the
migration, other countries have introduced more
OECD Indicators of Talent Attractiveness (ITA)
stringent policies with respect to admission,
was released in 2019.
employment, and living conditions for qualified
The Talent Indicators allows countries to place migrants and their families.
themselves on the map for different types of
The updated OECD Indicators or Talent
talented migrants. The multidimensional
Attractiveness cover all these changes, providing
framework focuses on three specific categories
the most accurate picture of the global
of talented migrants:
competition for talent.
 Highly qualified workers
 International entrepreneurs
Measuring talent attractiveness
 University students
The distinction between different migrant profiles Determinants of talent attractiveness is
constitutes an important innovation in respect to multidimensional. The ability to attract and retain
other benchmarking exercises in measuring talent does not only depend on the openness of
talent attractiveness. As the analysis in this brief the migration policies to skilled talents, but also
shows, a country can be attractive to one or two on the capacity to recognise and reward
of the migrant categories, while at the same time international talent. Attractiveness is also not
providing a much less attractive environment for limited to economic factors, but dependent on the
another migrant profile. ability for migrants to integrate into the host
society, as well as the wider economic and social
What is new?
environment.
Since the launch of the first edition of the ITA,
The OECD Indicators of Talent Attractiveness
several important factors have had an impact on
framework is composed of seven dimensions,
the global labour market for talents.
each representing a distinct aspect of talent
First and foremost, the COVID-19 pandemic had attractiveness (Table 1). Every dimension
a direct impact on talent mobility through consists of a set of variables, tailored to each
lockdowns and border closure that severely migrant profile.

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Table 1. Overview of dimensions and variables in the Talent Indicator framework

Dimensions Workers Entrepreneurs Students
Quality Migrant unemployment rate Strictness of employment protection Universities ranked in the World’s top
of Opportunity Migrant over-qualification rate Product market regulation index 500
Migrants with temporary contracts Trade openness
Migrants with part-time contract Ease of doing business index

Income Earnings of highly educated workers Earnings of highly educated workers Earnings of skilled workers
and Tax Price level index Price level index Price level index
Tax wedge Corporate tax Difference in university tuition fees
between domestic and foreign students
Hours/week international students are
allowed to work
Future Dependency ratio in 2050
Prospects Dependency ratio in 2050 Dependency ratio in 2050 Acquisition of nationality
Acquisition of nationality Acquisition of nationality Ease of status change from study to
Ease of status change from temporary to Ease of status change from temporary temporary
permanent to permanent Months allowed to stay in the country
after graduation
Family Right for spouse to join migrant and to Right for spouse to join migrant and to
Right for spouse to join migrant and to work
environment work work
Easiness for children of migrants to get
Easiness for children of migrants to get Easiness for children of migrants to get
citizenship
citizenship citizenship
PISA math test scores
PISA math test scores PISA math test scores
Public expenditure on family benefits
Public expenditure on family benefits Public expenditure on family benefits
Participation tax rate for second earner
Participation tax rate for second earner Participation tax rate for second earner
parent entering employment
parent entering employment parent entering employment
Skills Broadband subscriptions (new) Broadband subscriptions (new) Broadband subscriptions (new)
environment Share of fibre in broadband (new) Share of fibre in broadband (new) Share of fibre in broadband (new)
English proficiency English proficiency English proficiency
Gross domestic spending on R&D Gross domestic spending on R&D Tertiary education spending
Total number of patents (IP5) Total number of patents (IP5)
Inclusiveness Share of highly educated migrants in working Share of migrants in self-employed Share of international students enrolled
age population population in tertiary education
Migrant Acceptance Index (new) Migrant Acceptance Index (new) Migrant Acceptance Index (new)
SIGI Gender Equality Index SIGI Gender Equality Index SIGI Gender equality Index
Quality of Life OECD Better Life Index OECD Better Life Index OECD Better Life Index

Visa and Visa refusal rates Minimum capital requirement Level of university tuition fees
admission Visa processing time Job creation requirement Share of international students in the
policy Level of digitisation of the visa process (new) Level of digitisation of the visa process total student population in relation to the
Quota for highly skilled workers (new) share of foreign-born individuals in the
total population
Health system Out-of-pocket health spending Out-of-pocket health spending Out-of-pocket health spending
performance Satisfaction with availability of quality health Satisfaction with availability of quality Satisfaction with availability of quality
(optional) care health care health care
Avoidable mortality Avoidable mortality Avoidable mortality
Note: The health system performance dimension is a new but optional dimension in the framework. Users of the Talent Indicator tool can decide
whether to take the health dimension into account or not. Variables marked as “new” represents new aspects or updates of previous variables
in the framework when new and more up-to-date data have become available. In creating the composite score, some of the variables in the
framework have been inverted, to ensure that a higher variable value always translates into a higher ITA score. These variables include: labour
market outcomes for highly skilled workers; strictness of employment protection; price level index; tax levels; out-of-pocket health spending;
avoidable mortality. For more details related to the variables and data sources see (Tuccio, 2019[1]).

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The dimensions and variables provide detailed users to factor in their decision-making process a
information on the main drivers of talent mobility new dimension related to health system
across the economic and social sphere. The performance (Box 1).
variables are mainly based on quantitative national
The Talent Indicators are designed to offer the
data compiled by the OECD, complemented by
possibility for users to express individual
other key global databases. In addition, group-
preferences in the relative importance of different
specific observations from large scale household
dimensions by alternating the weighting and
surveys, immigration data, and qualitative analysis
construct their own unique rankings on the
of policy frameworks capture integration outcomes
dedicated webpage of the OECD Indicators of
and the challenges that qualified migrants face
Talent Attractiveness.
when trying to obtain a visa or resident permit.
The rankings presented in this brief are however
The variables behind the composite indicators are
based on default equal weights across the seven
tailored to reflect the specificity of the migration
core dimensions of talent attractiveness, with a
determinants of each migrant category and are
discussion on the implications of adding an
thus not the same across categories. Even when
additional dimension capturing health system
variables and dimensions are the same across
performance.
migrant profiles, their value and weight may
change according to the category due to the joint
effect of the full set of variables in a dimension. Highly skilled migrants
A unique feature of the OECD Indicators of Talent
Attractiveness is the inclusion of migration policy The five most attractive countries for highly skilled
as a factor to measure attractiveness. The chances migrants in 2023 are New Zealand, Sweden,
of admission into a destination country will have an Switzerland, Australia, and Norway (Figure 1). All
impact on the country’s overall attractiveness, and these countries, except Norway, were also in the
high barriers to admission makes other dimensions top-five in 2019, although their internal order has
of attractiveness less compelling. The measure of changed. New Zealand is now ranked the most
stringency of migration policies and practices is attractive country for qualified workers (up from
therefore not treated as an additional dimension in place four in 2019), due to its favourable conditions
the Talent indicator framework. Instead, the policy in all dimensions of the ranking (see Table A A.1.
dimension is introduced as a penalty applied to the in the Annex). Sweden and Switzerland, which are
total indicator score, with tailored policy variables characterised by inclusive and family-friendly
associated with the three migrant profiles societies with high standard of living and a strong
respectively. skills environment remain second and third
respectively. Australia is falling back from first to
Besides visa and admission policies, the fourth place. It should however be noted that the
framework includes other migration policies related
top five countries in the ranking are very close in
to the conditions that migrants and their families
score, so small movements in the top does not
face in the destination country. These include for necessarily reflect a large change in the talent
example how easy it is to change from temporary
attractiveness environment.
to permanent status, and entry conditions and
labour market access of accompanying spouses. Other countries ranked in the top ten are penalised
for unfavourable visa and admission policies. The
A challenge is to find a balance between adapting
United States and Canada would have been
the ranking to a continuously evolving landscape of
ranked second and seven respectively if visa
new data sources and research related to talent- policies were not considered. After the visa penalty
attractiveness becoming available, while at the
is introduced, they fall back in the ranking due to
same time maintaining comparability of over time.
high refusal rates, quota on highly skilled workers
The second edition includes some adjustments to (United States), and relatively long visa processing
the measurement and data behind a limited times (Canada).
number of variables, as well as the possibility for

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Two new countries made it to the top ten most high visa refusal rates and relatively long visa
attractive countries for highly skilled workers: processing times.
Luxembourg (number 6) and United Kingdom
At the bottom of the ranking, Mexico and Türkiye
(number 7), while Ireland falls out of the top list
are joined by two new OECD member countries,
from rank 6 to 12 (Figure A A.1). These patterns
Costa Rica, and Colombia. All four countries have
are also partly explained by changes in visa and
in common that they are among the top countries
admission conditions. The United Kingdom has
when it comes to the income and tax dimension,
abolished the previous quota for highly skilled
driven by low tax burdens and cost of living, while
workers, and has favourable labour market
they appear among the bottom countries in all
integration outcomes for foreign highly skilled
other dimensions.
workers. Ireland has on the other hand seen
increasing visa processing times. The new health dimension, introduced as an
optional dimension in the Talent Indicator
Other notable changes in the ranking over time
framework (Box 1), generally results in an
include an improvement for France, due to among
improvement in the ranking by between 2-5 places
other things lower visa refusal rates compared to
for the Nordic countries, Austria, Belgium, German,
previously registered, while Estonia and Austria
Italy, and the Netherlands. Countries that move
face a substantial decline in the ranking. In the
down the ranking when the health dimension is
case of Estonia, this is due to factors such as low
considered include Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,
wages for highly qualified workers, a less
Portugal, and the United States. Similar changes
welcoming attitude towards migrants, and longer
to the ranking are obtained when the health
visa processing times, while highly qualified
dimension is considered in the rankings for
workers in Austria face weak employment
entrepreneurs and students.
outcomes in combination with a high tax wedge,

Figure 1. Attractiveness of OECD countries for potential migrants: highly skilled workers
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0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

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Note: Values closer to 1(0) represent higher (lower) attractiveness. The ranking is based on default equal weights across dimensions and does
not include the health system performance dimension. Top-ten countries are highlighted to facilitate comparison.
Source: OECD Secretariat.

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Box 1. Measuring talent attractiveness in the wake of a global health pandemic

Since the launch of the OECD Indicators of Talent Attractiveness in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic had
profound effects on labour markets globally, shifting work and migration patterns. It also had important
impacts on labour market outcomes, particularly for immigrants. The pandemic has further accelerated
an already ongoing digital transformation and underlined the potential of digital technologies and
communication infrastructure. Ensuring widespread access and effective use of digital technology is
key to make societies attractive for people to work and live in.
The implications of COVID-19 on migration patterns, conditions and demand for talent called for minor
adjustments in the framework of the talent indicators prior to the release of the second edition. Firstly,
two new variables to capture the level of digitalisation and digital infrastructure have been
included under the skills environment dimension, replacing a relatively outdated measure of
household’s access to internet. The new variables capture broadband infrastructure development
(number of subscriptions per 100 inhabitants) and access to high-speed internet connections
(measured as the share of fibre in total broadband connections). Secondly, a variable related to the
level of digitisation of the visa process was added to the visa and admission policy dimension. The
possibility of electronic applications and issuing of visas is not only significantly simplifying the visa
process, but also sends a signal to the prospective migrant on the level of digitalisation of the country
more generally. This data is obtained from Fragomen, a leading international law firm specialized in
immigration law services that collects data on the digitisation of the different steps in the visa process.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, migrants may also put more emphasis on the resilience and
performance of health systems in their decision-making process. A new dimension capturing health
system performance has therefore been developed as an optional eight dimension in the OECD Talent
Indicator framework. Measuring health system performance is complex, reflecting aspects such as
access to care, quality of health services, as well as capacity and resources and outcomes (OECD,
2021[2]). The new health dimension is composed of three key variables, based on OECD and Gallup
data, mixing subjective and objective measures of health system performance:
 Cost: measured as households out-of-pocket spending on health care as share of total
spending. Out-of-pocket payments are expenditures borne directly by a patient in the case
where neither public nor private insurance cover the full cost of the health good or service.
 Quality: measured as subjective satisfaction with the availability of quality health care services
provided in the city or area where they live (based on Gallup World Poll data).
 Avoidable mortality: capturing the sum of preventable (causes of death that can be mainly
avoided through effective public health and primary prevention interventions) and treatable
mortality (causes of death that can be mainly avoided through timely and effective health care
intervention).
The pandemic also had direct and indirect impacts on several of the variables included in the Talent
Indicator framework, such as international trade and labour market outcomes. The evolution of labour
market outcomes of immigrants in the OECD over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic was
characterised by a sharp decline in the early phase, and a mixed picture when it comes to recovery in
2021. About half of the OECD countries for which data are available have seen immigrant employment
rates exceed pre-pandemic levels, other countries, such as Germany, Spain, and the United States,
saw employment rates below the pre-pandemic levels (OECD, 2022[3])
To avoid direct but transitory impacts of the pandemic on the OECD Talent Indicator ranking, data for
2020 has to the extent possible been excluded in favour of more recent data. In cases where no data
for 2022 are available and data for 2021 is judged problematic because of the influence of the pandemic,
data from 2019 or earlier years are used.

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International entrepreneurs
The top five countries most attractive for immigrant
The United Kingdom climbs several places in the
entrepreneurs remain Sweden, Switzerland,
ranking due to lower capital requirements for
Canada, Norway, and New Zealand (Figure 2).
entrepreneurs, but also a favourable environment
They all have in common to offer favourable living
when considering most other aspects such as a
and family conditions for migrants and family
strong skills environment and being welcoming to
members, but more mixed outcomes when it
immigrants. Luxembourg stands for the largest
comes to the economic and regulatory
improvement in the ranking since 2019
environment facing entrepreneurs and future
(Figure A A.1. in the Annex). This is not explained
prospect for migrants to stay mid- to long-term in
by any major migration policy changes, but rather
the country (Table A A.1. in the Annex).
improvements in the overall environment with
Countries also differ in their visa policy favourable economic and regulatory conditions
frameworks. Canada lost the first place in the and a slight reduction in the corporate tax level
entrepreneur ranking after having abolished its since 2019. France also climbs in the ranking due
federal visa programme for entrepreneurs and now to improvements in its visa and admission policies
only offers provincial visa programmes that often for entrepreneurs, and lower corporate tax.
have capital requirements. Sweden has favourable
At the other end of the ranking, Colombia, Mexico,
visa conditions for entrepreneurs with a fast track
and Türkiye are lagging behind other OECD
to permanent residency and no capital or job
member countries when it comes to attracting
creation requirements for entrepreneurs.
international entrepreneurs. The low scores are
The United States remains the strictest country in due to a combination of strict migration policies and
terms of visa and job creation requirements for less favourable economic and living conditions
entrepreneurs, but still improves its position in the compared to other OECD countries. Israel and
ranking due to other favourable conditions such as Costa Rica are obtaining slightly higher scores,
a reduction in corporate tax levels and an increase compensating strict admission policies and low
in research and development (R&D) investments prospects for migrants to stay mid- to long-term
since 2019. If visa and admission policies were not with a relatively strong skills environment in the
considered, the United States would be the most case of Israel or a favourable business
attractive country for entrepreneurs, followed by environment in the case of Costa Rica.
Canada and Switzerland.
Figure 2. Attractiveness of OECD countries for potential migrants: entrepreneurs
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0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

Note: Values closer to 1(0) represent higher (lower) attractiveness. The ranking is based on default equal weights across dimensions and does
not include the health system performance dimension. Iceland is not included in the ranking due to a lack of visa for entrepreneurs. Top-ten
countries are highlighted to facilitate comparison.
Source: OECD Secretariat.

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University students Japan has made the most significant climb in the
student ranking since 2019 (Figure A A.1. in the
The top three countries in the student ranking are Annex). The improvement is largely due improved
the United States, Germany, and the United conditions for international students such as
Kingdom, which also reflect the countries with the reduced time to change from a temporary to
largest number of top universities (Figure 3). permanent visa for students and improved
Norway is ranked fourth, followed by Australia and conditions for students to stay post-graduation.
Canada. It is not surprising that four out of the six Japan has also seen some increase in the share of
top countries are English-speaking countries with international students in recent years, as well as a
many top-ranked universities and relatively high particularly strong growth in exports of education-
shares of international students. However, it also related services, with revenues from international
shows that smaller countries such as Norway can students almost tripling between 2014 and 2019
become highly attractive to international students (OECD, 2022[5]). However, the share of
by offering low tuition fees for foreign students (no international students in the overall student
fees at all in the case of Norway) and putting in population remains low compared to many other
place generous policies for students and OECD countries.
accompanying spouses when it comes to access
to the labour market and possibilities to stay upon Other countries have seen their relative
graduation. Both Germany and Norway also offer attractiveness drop since 2019. This is particularly
a significant and growing number of university the case for Finland and France. Both countries
programmes at higher level in English. have recently2 introduced higher tuition fees for
foreign students, which both translates into higher
Many OECD countries has introduced recently absolute fees for foreign students and introduces a
more favourable policies to attract, support and fee gap between foreign and national students and
retain international students in the last decade thus affect two different variables in the Talent
(OECD, 2022[4]). This is especially true for policies Indicator ranking for students. This translates into
related to labour market access, and the possibility large drops in the ranking for both France and
to stay and search for work post-graduation, as a Finland (Figure A A.1.).
way for countries to address accelerating skills
shortages in the labour market following COVID- Several other countries have also raised their
19. university tuition fees since 2019, notably some of
the countries at the bottom of the ranking for
For example, both the United States and the United international students, such as Israel, Türkiye, and
Kingdom improved the conditions for post- Mexico. Chile has left the bottom ranking by
graduation visas that allows graduates to look for implementing active policies to attract and retain
employment, and Germany and the United States students such as allowing students to work during
increased the number of hours that students are studies and removing tuition fee gaps between
allowed to work next to their studies. Other native and foreign students.
countries that improved the conditions to stay post-
graduation include Canada, Spain, Finland,
Ireland, and Luxembourg.

2
The reform in Finland was introduced already in 2017 Attractiveness was released. The reform in France came
but was not yet reflected in the latest data available when into effect in 2019.
the first edition of the OECD Indicators of Talent
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Figure 3. Attractiveness of OECD countries for potential migrants: university students

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0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

Note: Values closer to 1(0) represent higher (lower) attractiveness. The ranking is based on default equal weights across dimensions and does
not include the health system performance dimension. Costa Rica is not included in the ranking due to missing data for the visa and admission
policy dimension. Top-ten countries are highlighted to facilitate comparison.
Source: OECD Secretariat.

The role of migration policies in attracting top talent

A key question for national policy makers is how to Korea would gain more in their relative
improve their attractiveness in the global attractiveness from a policy reform due to the
competition for talent. Besides visa and admission current relatively stringent migration policy
framework. Israel is another example of a country
policies, the OECD Indicators of Talent
that has a lot to gain in attractiveness from
Attractiveness also considers a set of other key adopting more favourable migration policies.
migration policies, such as family reunification
practices (whether a spouse can join the main Some countries would be able to close a significant
applicant and whether the spouse can work) and part of the attractiveness-gap with policy reform for
the ease of changing from temporary to a certain qualified migrants but not for others. In
permanent status. Austria, a policy reform would reduce the
Policy simulations in Figure 4 shows how much of attractiveness-gap for workers to about 10%, while
the gap to the top-performing country that would be a larger gap (15%) would remain for students even
closed if the most favourable set of migration if the most favourable set of migration policies were
policies were adopted. The simulation shows that in place.
migration policies play an important role in closing
the attractiveness gap and move towards the top The results thus show that even though improving
of the ranking for most OECD countries. All migration policies always leads to improvements in
countries in the upper half of the rankings would be the ranking, changes to the migration policy
10% or less away from the top-ranked country by framework is not necessary enough to fully close
implementing less stringent migration policies. the attractiveness-gap, especially not for countries
in the bottom part of the rankings. For the six
The policy simulation reveals which countries that countries that appears at the bottom across all
have the most leeway to improve their
rankings (Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Türkiye,
attractiveness by adopting more favourable
migration policies. For example, while Japan and and Greece), about 30-50% of the distance to the
Korea obtain very similar scores to Spain and top performing countries would remain despite the
Slovakia in the ranking for workers, Japan and most favourable policies in place.

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Figure 4. Difference in gap to top performing country between ITA rank and simulated rank if all
migration policies were the most favourable, by migrant profile
Workers

Gap to top country pre-simulation Gap to top country post-simulation

Distance to top performer (%)

60

50

40

30

20

10

Entrepreneurs

Gap to top performing country pre-simulation Gap to top performing country post-simulation

60

50

40

30

20

10

Students

Gap to top performing country pre-simulation Gap to top performing country post-simulation

60

50

40

30

20

10

Note: Pre-simulation display the gap to the top-performing country (in %) in the OECD Talent Indicator ranking with current policies in place.
Post-simulation displays the gap to the top-performing country if the most favourable migration policies would be adopted.
Source: OECD Secretariat.

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Conclusions actively revise and update the policy framework to

remain competitive in the global competition for
The second edition of the OECD Indicators of talent.
Talent Attractiveness shows that the relative talent
attractiveness among OECD countries remains One of the strengths of the OECD Indicators of
relatively stable over time, with similar countries Talent Attractiveness compared to other talent
found in the top and bottom positions of the three rankings is the distinction between attractiveness
rankings. However, some countries have managed across three categories of highly skilled migrants.
to improve their positions quite substantially, while This distinction reveals important differences in
others are falling behind. This is mainly due to talent attractiveness for different types of talent and
changes in the migration policy frameworks, either help policy makers compare strengths and
through changes in the visa and admission policies weaknesses not only in their relative
or changes in the conditions that qualified migrants competitiveness in relation to other countries, but
and their families face once they have moved, or a also in relation to different sets of national policies
combination of both. targeting different types of migrants.
The results further shows that the lack of active This year edition will be complemented by the
policies to attract and retain migrants also changes introduction of a fourth category of high skilled
the relative attractiveness of a country if other workers for which OECD countries are also
countries with similar conditions are adopting more competing: start up founders (OECD, 2023[6]).
favourable policies targeting highly skilled
migrants. This underlines the importance of

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International Migration Outlook Employment and Migration Working
2022, OECD Publishing, Paris, Papers, No. 229, OECD Publishing,
https://doi.org/10.1787/ee801c11-en. Paris,
https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/b4e677ca-
OECD (2022), “Retention and economic [5]
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the OECD”, in International  Contacts
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Jean-Christophe Dumont
Publishing, Paris,
International Migration Division, OECD
https://doi.org/10.1787/6d130809- Email: [email protected]
en. Tel: +33 1 45 24 92 43
OECD (2022), What has been the [3]
Lisa Andersson
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic International Migration Division, OECD
on immigrants? An update, Email: [email protected]
https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/po Tel: +33 1 45 24 17 27
licy-responses/what-is-the-impact-of-
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This policy brief should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its member countries. The
opinions expressed and arguments employed are those of the authors.
This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to
the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of
such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements
in the West Bank under the terms of international law.

Annex A: Additional data

Figure A A.1. Changes in the ranking between the first and the second edition of the OECD Talent
Indicators

Workers Entrepreneurs Students

20

15

10

-5

-10

-15

Note: The figure displays the number of places in the respective rankings that countries have gained or lost compared to the ranking in 2019.
Source: OECD Secretariat.

MIGRATION POLICY DEBATES © OECD N°29, MARCH 2023 12

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Table A A.1. Dimension scores, by migrant profile

Note: The table displays the dimension scores by quartiles.

Source: OECD Secretariat.

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