McKinsey reported in 2012 that from 1980 to 2010, the global participation of workers with secondary education went from 39% to 48%. The proportion of college graduates in the labor force doubled in advance economies and grew by more than 2.5 times in developing economies.
People with more formal education are more mobile. They have more resources to finding work, work the visa systems, and fund their migration. Advanced countries invite them to come, such as in information technology and healthcare. 48% of recent immigrants to the U.S. have at least one advanced degree.
But this also allows global companies to locate their high skilled jobs in emerging economies.
Higher education became a global industry. In 2017, there were over 5.3 million international students, up from 2 million in 2000. In 1998, 193,000 students from China and India studied abroad. In 2017, that number was 1,260,000
The destination of international students has been mainly to Anglophone countries – 40% of international students went to U.S, U.K., Canada and Australia, with the U.S. absorbing about of fifth of all international students. The pandemic will have severe adverse impacts on many U.S. colleges due to lowered enrollments this Fall. (Go here and here.)