Exploring the social conditions which govern the processes of migration and non-migration of highly skilled Indian professionals to the UK

The aim of this research is to explore the social conditions that govern the processes of migration and non-migration of Indian doctors and IT professionals. The current study also explores both the push and pull factors, which are subjective and vary from person to person, depending on social institutional experience. The social conditions and processes are taken as subjective social realities which vary among highly skilled professionals. Data is collected from doctors and IT engineers working and living in India and the UK. The research takes a qualitative approach . Semi-structured interviews are conducted with 38 participants identified through social networks, personal contacts and a purposive snowball sampling technique. Thematic analysis is performed through coding and keywords using NVivo software. Current research has explored interaction between the institutional framework to explore the impact of families on individual decisions is significant, because of the collectivist nature of Indian society. The findings suggest that the migration and non-migration of highly skilled Indians is based on social conditions and constructed dynamic family factors such as marital status, gender, skill level, linking lives, family obligations, family size, whether the person is a single child, women’s role in the family, the decision-making power of the family and life experiences from childhood to maturity. These conditions vary across a lifespans and motivates to gain skills so that family members do not experience future social, organizational inequalities. The theoretical contribution is to merge institutional and social capital theory to develop a new conceptual framework which explicitly provides knowledge of the institutional and social capital role of social conditions. Institutional settings influence this social capital due to unequal access to institutional resources and job markets. Social capital theory explains the impact of the social conditions of the family as a whole on the migration process of highly skilled professional due to collectivism principal in Indian society.