This study is a follow-up activity to the MIDSA Workshop on Migration and Development in Southern Africa, held in Zanzibar, Tanzania, in 2004. It assesses and analyses the migration and development situation of Angola and Zambia, with a special focus on skills migration and a review of government policies and capacity related to skills migration and initiatives of various stakeholders, including donors and civil society organizations.

There is much greater awareness today that development affects migration, and that migration influences development. The challenge is to find innovative and effective ways to enhance the benefits of migration while mitigating its adverse development implications for emigration countries. For this purpose, it is important to distinguish between different groups of migrants based on their skill levels. Governments of emigration countries look with considerable concern on the permanent departure of highly educated and trained nationals. Such skills emigration can translate into both negative and positive effects: on the one hand brain drain and, on the other, positive consequences such as the development of emigration countries aided by circular or permanent return of their skilled expatriates.