The brain drain: Implications for regional economic integration in the expanding European Union (original) (raw)

Brain Drain and the Academic and the Intellectual Labour Market in South East Europe

2004

As author of this paper, I need to acknowledge the readers that a publication of a shorter version of this article will be included in the UNESCO-CEPES Quarterly, HEE vol. 23 3 2004, ISSN 0379-7724 published by CARFAX. Also, the results of the conference “Brain Drain and the Academic and the Intellectual Labour Market in South East Europe” will be included subsequently in a book in the Unesco Studies in Higher Education series. This electronic format is limited distributed to the persons that helped me developing this study and no external circulation or publication is allowed. Quotations or references to this paper need to mention the UNESCOCEPES Quarterly Journal. For reasons due to the writing up limits and requirements, the information gathered was sometimes differently managed as from what was previously planned. Hope, though, this piece of work finds positive responses from its readers. I am sincerely very grateful to the great people that trusted me enough to share part of th...

Brain Drain as Brain Gain in Southeast Europe: Challenges Ahead

Available at SSRN 2162956, 2012

The majority of highly educated Southeast Europeans leave their countries in search of a better life. Scientists, researchers and senior managers are attracted by career opportunities, salaries and better overall conditions abroad. Over the past decade, the number of researchers has seriously declined. Many Southeast European (SEE) countries experience high emigration rates of their skilled professionals. What is typical of brain drain emigrants from SEE is that they usually sever their ties with their country of origin and ...

Brain Drain from Central and Eastern Europe

1997

When communism collapsed many feared that the resulting 'brain drain' would both cripple the economies of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and finally result in a flow of scientific and technical expertise into undesirable weapon development. A collaborative survey carried out in ten Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, however, has revealed that the brain drain was much less serious than once feared. It also shows that the EU programmes supporting science in Central and Eastern Europe have the potential to contribute towards greater stability and to encourage scientists to remain in their home institutes. Social scientists recognized the need to help the former communist states through their inevitable period of transition and instability As an initial step, the BRAIN-DRAIN project was set up to monitor and analyze the movement of scientific staff in and from ten former communist countries. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuan...

The European Politics of Brain Drain: A Fast or Slow-Burning Crisis

CSGR Working Paper no. 285/17, 2017

This qualitative multi-method study maps the politics of brain drain at the level of the European Union and follows the evolution of the issue over the last four parliamentary periods. By utilizing a novel combination of interviews with a content and network analysis of parliamentary questions, the article demonstrates how the politics of brain drain travel from the domestic level to the European through frames that connect the issue to problems and solutions at the Union-level. After presenting a statistical overview of intra-EU mobility flows, I conclude that the politics of brain drain are not adequately captured or addressed in the official numbers. Instead, I turn to discourse in order to analyze the prevailing interpretations of brain drain, why it occurs, and what to do about it. The analysis reveals that the uncertainty, controversy, and open-endedness of brain drain as an intra-European phenomenon lends itself well to multiple framings by actors in pursuit of preconceived political ends. This creates a space of opportunities within the Commission between laissez-faire and interventionist responses that vary in terms of the economic assumptions and political preferences brought to bear on the issue. Although the current balance is weighted in favor of a supply-side, employability logic towards brain drain, there is evidence of a schism within the Commission that presents an opportunity to productively engage with other understandings of the issue in pursuit of best practices.

From brain drain to brain circulation: how labour mobility can help less developed European regions

2016

One of the potential problems created by the free movement of people is that skilled workers are drawn toward more developed areas, undermining the development of their own regions. As Riccardo Crescenzi, Nancy Holman and Enrico Orru write, this process, commonly referred to as ‘brain drain’, can present a number of challenges for less developed European regions. However, drawing on research in Sardinia, they suggest that fostering an alternative process of ‘brain circulation’, in which the international networks and contacts of individuals living within an area can be utilised as a resource for development, can make mobility a positive driver of change.

Brain Drain and the Academic and the Intellectual Labour Market

2004

published by CARFAX. Also, the results of the conference "Brain Drain and the Academic and the Intellectual Labour Market in South East Europe" will be included subsequently in a book in the Unesco Studies in Higher Education series. This electronic format is limited distributed to the persons that helped me developing this study and no external circulation or publication is allowed. Quotations or references to this paper need to mention the UNESCO-CEPES Quarterly Journal. For reasons due to the writing up limits and requirements, the information gathered was sometimes differently managed as from what was previously planned. Hope, though, this piece of work finds positive responses from its readers. I am sincerely very grateful to the great people that trusted me enough to share part of their life stories with me and thank them by heart. * * * This paper is about the experience of labour migration among skilled Romanians, mainly Information Technology workers and highly qualified researchers. It is based on a questionnaire survey where, among other elements, we investigated on the pushing/pulling aspects of qualified migration and the strategies of labour migration. This is still a draft version, but nevertheless we thought it was worth to contribute to the Unesco/Cepes conference with this piece of work that analyzes the brain drain through the perspective and personal experience of its "brain" protagonists, going deep on the effective reasons of their migrating and their future perspectives. Some significant elements that emerged refer to the importance of electronic "transnationalism", the relatively limited and unlikely plan of a possible return of brains and a denounce of those immigration barriers and difficulties that were experienced. This

Addressing the EU's East-West Brain Drain: Why a Tax Solution Would Be in Vain

New Perspectives 27(2), 2019

In the 1970s Jagdish Bhagwati proposed the introduction of a brain drain tax to compensate less developed countries for the welfare losses they suffered as a result of outward skilled migration, but the proposal was never implemented. In light of tensions in Europe caused by the mobility of highly-skilled labour from 'East' to 'West' following the 2004 EU enlargement, this paper reexamines the feasibility of such a proposal within the Union. The disparity between levels of income and economic development in (some of) the 'new' and 'old' member states, combined with the specific European institutional environment to trigger a brain drain from the accession countries to the EU-15. Mindful of the values and specificities of the EU, I address the question of whether Bhagwati's brain drain tax could provide a solution to this problem in the European context. Combining empirical research with EU integration theory, I argue that it cannot: implementation would face obstacles even in the limited context of the EU because of the lack of appropriate supranational competences; moreover, the tax-as a compensation mechanism-could not reduce the major differences in development levels, which is the underlying cause of the problem. Nonetheless, addressing this question illuminates broader issues of the politics of enlargement and the inequities of the current EU, in spite of the benefits it has brought to its 2004 and 2007 entrants.

European academic brain drain: A meta‐synthesis

European Journal of Education, 2021

In recent years, mobility of brains, especially the mobility of academics and researchers in higher education has gained momentum (Kim, 2017). The internationalisation policies of higher education in Europe in terms of the Bologna and Lisbon processes have stimulated both the mobility within Europe and the immigration to Europe to enhance European competitiveness in higher education (De Wit, 2012; Teichler, 2009). At the same time, there is a dark side to European academic mobility: the emigration to other countries in the form of brain drain or human capital loss (Ackers, 2008; Grigolo et al, 2010; Teichler, 2009). Contrary to the short-term mobility encouraged by internationalisation policies, brain drain is the permanent outflow of highly skilled migrants from a country,

Brain Drain: Are We Losing Our Minds? A Study on the Romanian Human Capital F(L)Ight

On-line Journal Modelling the New Europe

In a truly internationalised world, where the mobility of workers and students is encouraged, the transfer of skilled individuals (geographical brain drain) is a problem that affects many of the developing countries around the globe. The purpose of our research is to see whether Romania is still a country strongly affected by the geographical brain drain, as well as to find out the reasons behind the intention to seek employment abroad. As such, we wanted to find out if the students enrolled at the Faculty of European Studies within Babeș-Bolyai University already know what they want to do after graduation, i.e. leave the country / stay in their country of origin, and to find out to what extent the possibility to study abroad for one semester or a year through the Erasmus+ Programme or to go on a 'Work & Travel' programme influences students' decision of leaving the country after graduation.