When we think about migration we tend to think about the physical movement of people because it is people who move, often taking with them their families and their possessions. We emphasise the physical because we think in terms of migrants doing physical work _ construction, child-care, nursing, etc.
Scientists are in short supply, as many head overseas once they have graduated. We need to find ways to persuade successful emigrants to return home and give back some of what they have learnt.
But what we are really seeing is the exchange of ideas, of attitudes, of different ways of doing things. We have become used to the phenomenon of ideas flying across borders through cyberspace but we don't recognise the human hard drives that physically bring their entrepreneurism and experience to host countries, and back home.
We also tend to concentrate on the dollars and cents side of things. Most people already know that remittances sent by diaspora communities more than double official overseas development assistance (over US$400 billion or 12.8 billion baht in 2010 of which $325 billion went to developing countries).
But what makes this happen, what drives this and accelerates it is the intellectual capital. The ambition. The dream. The aspiration. In short, it's all about the brain.
We know that migrants are often the best and the brightest. They have the resolve to make hazardous journeys far away from their homes and loved ones in pursuit of a dream, or just of survival. When they bond together in a host country, they can become a powerful force for development in their places of birth.
In Thailand we realised this as long ago as 1990 when the concept of Reverse Brain Drain programme was promulgated by the Damrong Lathapipat Foundation. This in turn led to the establishment of the Association of Thai Professionals in America and Canada, the Association of Thai Professionals in Europe and the Association of Thai Professionals in Japan.
The programme means just what it says. Encouraging the successful emigrants to come home, on a permanent or temporary basis, in order to give back some of what they have learnt and achieved. Forty top Thai professionals have returned home, full time or temporarily, through this programme.
Policy makers and governments need to engage with diaspora communities. Ministers and civil servants should ensure they welcome the expertise and status of diasporas.
This is especially relevant when we note that in 2015 the Asean Economic Community will become a reality and will transform the Asean region, with free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labour, and the freer flow of capital.
To enhance regional integration, the Asean Economic Blueprint addresses the need for increased mobility of people via its provision for liberalised flows of skilled labour.
This in turn has implications for a range of related national regulations and practices, including visa regulations, investment requirements, welfare entitlements and pension funds. Diaspora members, who are living embodiments of mobility, who understand what it is to belong to more than one place, are ideally placed to help regional governments plan for and adapt to the post 2015 reality.
The handbook on "Developing a Roadmap for Engaging Diasporas in Development" produced by the International Organisation for Migration and the Migration Policy Institute, which targets policy makers and practitioners in home and host countries, makes the case that diaspora engagement is a process that requires sustained attention across a broad front. It also requires a strategy. Whilst every diaspora's relationship with countries of origin or ancestry and countries of destination or settlement is unique, certain fundamental elements are necessary components of almost all successful strategies of engagement.
A government strategy for diaspora engagement needs to include the following elements: identification of goals, mapping diaspora geography and skills, creating a relationship of trust between diasporas and governments of both origin and destination countries, and ultimately, mobilising diasporas to contribute to sustainable development. The "destination" is arrived at when the diaspora is established as a true partner in the development of its country of origin. In Thailand, the Reverse Brain Drain programme has brought us a long way down that road.
Noppawan Tanpipat is Vice President on International Relations and Organisation Communications, the National Science and Technology Development Agency.