This research discusses the relationship between the migration of skilled professional and
managerial workers from Canada to the United States the so-called brain drain and seeks to
determine if and how the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) may have affected bilateral flows of permanent and non-permanent
immigrants between the two countries. Classical economic theory suggests that trade and factor
movements are substitutes so that freer trade between Canada and the United States could be
expected to reduce incentives for bilateral migration. On the other hand the labor demands of
multinational corporations in the emerging global marketplace require a greater degree of
worker mobility than has heretofore existed. The research reviews available historic and
longitudinal evidence related to political social and economic effects of the FTA and the
NAFTA.
