Migration Studies and International Business Scholarship: Toward Mutual Renewal in the Study of High-Skilled Migration

Abstract

This article introduces a special issue of International Migration Review , aimed at bringing migration studies and international business (IB) scholarship into dialogue. Although both interdisciplinary fields examine processes that are fundamentally interconnected—the movement of people and the movement of firms—they have largely developed in parallel. In this introduction, we review the most relevant IB scholarship, consider the extent to which it has drawn on migration-related insights, and reflect on why it has nonetheless remained relatively detached from broader migration studies. We then examine what IB can contribute to research on high-skilled migration, what migration studies can offer IB in return, and outline four pathways for building stronger conceptual bridges between the two fields. Collectively, the articles in this special issue illustrate that potential by illuminating the multiple intersections between high-skilled migration and IB.