For decades the emigration of highly skilled residents has been a cause of concern for many governments. Initially this was cast as a ‘brain drain’, but after several countries experienced significant return migration flows, the notion of ‘brain circulation’ took hold. More recently governments, corporations and various types of institutions have come to understand highly skilled expatriates as constituting diasporic communities, and have sought to engage strategically with them to achieve a range of political and economic objectives. In this seminar, the panel consider the ways in which governments and education providers are endeavouring to engage with and harness diasporic networks to shape the flows of students, graduates and scholars across borders. They also focus on the increasingly prominent role of diaspora populations in shaping Australia’s political and economic relationships with India, Southeast Asia and Latin America.