Britain is experiencing a “brain gain” as the number of highly skilled immigrants outweighs those leaving the country, an international study showed yesterday.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that 1.1 million Britons with university degrees are living overseas in other developed countries, about 10.3 per cent of the total.

But the effect is counterbalanced by the millions of foreign-born graduates entering the UK.

Figures produced by the World Bank in 2005 showed 1.26 million immigrant graduates living in the country, leaving a net “brain gain” of more than 100,000 people. At the time, more than 1.44 million graduates were living abroad. The OECD figures suggest that thousands have returned in the last two years.

Danny Sriskandarajah, a migration expert at the Institute for Public Policy Research think-tank, told The Daily Telegraph: “Britain has been lucky — although it has lost a substantial number of people, it has attracted more than a million skilled immigrants to replace them. If they stop coming, that would be a problem.”

Britain’s exodus remains far higher than any of the OECD’s other 29 members. Germany has lost 860,000 highly skilled workers, America 410,000 and France 370,000.

A spokesman for the OECD, which is based in Paris, said: “British people have lots of opportunities to move and work abroad so very highly skilled people are travelling around. It is seen by many British people as part of their personal development.”

The OECD also found that migrants to the UK are significantly better educated than the native population. Some 34.8 per cent of foreign-born adults living in Britain have higher education qualifications, compared with 20.1 per cent of Britons.

But many of the immigrants work well below their skill level. Universityeducated immigrants are almost twice as likely to be unemployed as their native-born counterparts.

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