Desired mobility or satisfied immobility? Migratory aspirations among knowledge workers

Abstract

Among the aspects discussed within the globalisation process, the international mobility of professional workers assumes considerable relevance. This paper focuses on migratory aspirations among knowledge workers within the context of economic globalisation and market restructuring in Romania. Due to a lack of literature dealing with these issues, the originality of this study consists in its attention to the stage immediately preceding migration: how highly skilled potential migrants plan their labour migration, as well as frame their personal and professional aspirations in their country of origin. The background of this research is then represented by the international outsourcing strategies of firms (the flow of capital and companies) to foreign countries and by the new employment opportunities offered by information technologies. In general, personal aspirations could be explained either in the form of committed plans for mobility or immobility or a desire to remain immobile. What influences aspirations to migrate is a mixture of pressures from the social environment, market and immigration conditions and personal traits and attitudes. The global outsourcing slightly influences brain drain outcomes, but it introduces brain circulation, virtual brain mobility and the emergence of a net bourgeoisie as features of globally relocated knowledge work.