Listen to Me, Learn with Me: International Migration and Knowledge Transfer
| Date | 01 June 2007 |
| Published date | 01 June 2007 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2007.00618.x |
| Author | Allan M. Williams |
Listen to Me, Learn with Me:
International Migration and
Knowledge Transfer
Allan M. Williams
Abstract
Existing research on the economic contribution of individual international
labour migrants has been couched largely in terms of skills, and has focused on
mobility within transnational corporations. This article explores some of the
broader links between the literatures on international migration and manage-
ment, and addresses four main questions: is migrant knowledge selective, is it
distinctive, what are the barriers to migrant knowledge transfer and what are
the implications for individual migrants and firms. This largely conceptual
review is informed by three main premises: the value of adopting a knowledge as
opposed to a skills perspective on migration; the importance of examining the
cycle of migration rather than static snapshots at particular stages, and the need
to consider inter-firm and extra-firm migration, as well as intra-firm mobility.
1. Introduction
The significance of knowledge to modern economies is widely acknowledged,
if often overstated (Brown et al. 2001; Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995). As
Welch (2001: 21; emphases added) asserts: ‘Know that the ultimate, sustain-
able competitive advantage lies in the ability to learn,totransfer that learning
across components, and to act on it quickly’. There are a number of vehicles
for learning and knowledge transfer, and recent research has focused on how
this is socially situated (Brown and Duguid 1991) and on the importance of
localized (based on physical proximity) versus distanciated (virtual) relation-
ships (Amin 2002). International migration has been surprisingly overlooked
in most of this research, with some notable exceptions (Alarcon 1999), even
though it plays a significant role in effecting localized, or face-to-face knowl-
edge transfers (Williams 2006).
Allan Williams is at the London Metropolitan University, Institute for the Study of European
Transformations, and Working Lives Research Institute.
British Journal of Industrial Relations
45:2 June 2007 0007–1080 pp. 361–382
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2007. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
Potentially, migrants are significant actors in knowledge transfer, especially
where international borders constitute substantial economic and cultural
barriers, and/or where co-presence and corporeal proximity are critical for
learning and tacit knowledge transfer. Co-presence is not, of course, a neces-
sary condition for tacit knowledge transfer between individuals (Amin 2002;
Wenger 1998), given the competing or complementary potential of electronic
communication. However, this paper contends that physical proximity does
mediate knowledge transfer. Migration is only one means whereby proximity
can be achieved — short-term placements, assembling short-life project teams
and conference attendance are some of the alternatives. However, interna-
tional migration is a potentially important means of knowledge transfer, as
evident in the estimated 175 million people living outside their country of birth
(United Nations 2003) — as well as the unquantified but substantial number of
return migrants. This article looks beyond the numbers, seeking to provide a
conceptual framework for understanding the selective and distinctive contri-
bution of international migration to knowledge transfer.
Surprisingly few studies have examined empirically the role of human
mobility (see Argote and Ingram 2000), let alone international migration, in
knowledge transfer. Instead, both the management and the migration litera-
tures have pursued more narrowly focused research agendas that have mili-
tated against a fuller exploration of the role of international migration in
learning and knowledge transfer. The management literature, while recogniz-
ing the importance of organizations’ intra-firm, inter-firm and extra-firm
networks (Nohria and Ghoshal 1997) in knowledge transfer, has paid little
attention to international migration as a transfer mechanism within these net-
works. Migration studies have mostly examined skills rather than knowledge,
and mostly individual migrants rather than how their knowledge is socially
situated within workplaces (Williams 2006). There are exceptions to this gen-
eralization, such as Almeida and Kogut’s (1999) and Regets’s (2001) studies of
the geographical mobility of scientists and engineers. And there is also a grow-
ing body of research on transnational elites in advanced business and financial
services in world cities (Beaverstock 2005; Morgan 2001), but surprisingly
little investigation of migrants who move between firms, whether inter-firm or
extra-firm. Bridging the management and migration literatures offers fresh
perspectives on knowledge transfer by migrants, as explained below.
In seeking to address this gap in our understanding of migration and
knowledge, the article is informed by three underlying concerns. First, to
demonstrate the value of focusing on knowledge rather than skills: in prac-
tice, the latter has mainly emphasized educational qualifications (Auriol and
Sexton 2002), which are relatively easily measurable, therefore focusing on
technical rather than social skills and particular forms of knowledge (Will-
iams and Baláž 2005). Second, to provide a framework whereby all interna-
tional migrants are understood to be potential knowledge carriers or
knowledgeable workers (Thompson et al. 2001), even if they face very differ-
ent constraints. This provides a counterpoint to the fragmentation of existing
research into discrete segments on skilled and unskilled workers. It also
362 British Journal of Industrial Relations
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2007.
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