Talent Migration Governance and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Comparing Germany and Singapore

ABSTRACT We compare Germany and Singapore to see how their approaches toward talent migration governance have evolved in the last decade and whether and how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected these developments. Building on the Highly-Skilled Immigration Index (HSII), our discussions show Germany becoming very welcoming of high-skilled labor migrants, and Singapore becoming increasingly selective in which labor migrants it admits into the City State. Our findings reveal that the COVID-19 pandemic has not changed the direction of policies in Germany and Singapore, but it has affected talent migration rates.