How European Nations Attract Highly Skilled Workers: Brain Drain Competition Policies

To obtain “1.2 million additional research personnel” necessary to “irrigate” the science-based industries, EU stresses, it is not sufficient to increase the investment in research alone. The motivation behind several brain drain policies implemented in Europe in recent years is to stop the European brain drain and reverse it: “Europeans who have moved abroad would love to come home”. This paper reviews principal ‘Brain Drain Competition’ policies either suggested in literature or implemented in Europe. The key strategies and mechanisms found are: making the academic system more open and flexible; improving the regulatory conditions, particularly on immigration; adapting income situations to market forces; providing tax reductions, specifically for researchers and knowledge workers; making international marketing more active, etc. Finally, the paper analyzes the effects of these policies on the brain drain in Europe by giving examples of countries that have effectively reversed brain drain and attracted foreign researchers. The case of Italy as “a country that supplies talent to Europe and the Americas” is also examined.