La mobilité des élites scientifiques de l'Autre Europe : exode ou circulation ?

Abstract

Movement of scientific élites from the Other Europe : exodus or circulation ? The aim of this text is to explain the dynamics of migration in which scientists from Central and Eastern Europe figure, sometimes prominently, as social actors and to suggest a typology of situations, given both the global and the specific transformations in that part of Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The geographic field of our investigation was delineated by theoretical considerations about international migration in general, and the migration of "brains" in particular : the analysis centred on Poland, Russia, Croatia and Serbia and was based on the empirical evidence and secondary analyses available to us. Our research revealed certain overall tendencies : firstly, science seems to be everywhere in a paradoxical situation. Challenged by high expectations as an important factor of transformation, it is at the same time jeopardized in that same function by its own transformation ; whatever the country, the situation in which science finds itself, the status and working conditions of the scientists are the driving forces behind emigration (less massive than it is believed to be, internal migration being more frequent than emigration abroad). Secondly, as far as migration is concerned, the situation is different from that observed during the cold war period : the possibility to leave and to return, i.e. the chance to circulate, replaces a situation where, in most Central and Eastern European countries, emigration abroad implied expatriation for good. These global tendencies can, however, have a different meaning in each country. Our theoretical framework draws on the opposition between a dynamic approach to international migration versus the push-pull approach, and the "nationalist-internationalist" dilemma as far as brain drain and mobility are concerned. We have pinpointed two situations as "ideal types" : the first directly reflects the changes in Central and Eastern Europe, and is represented by Poland and Russia, where a relative freedom of movement is gradually replacing departures which used to be rare and permanent ; the second is one of confinement and restricted mobility, in other words a break between the worlds of departure and arrival, represented in this study by the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Serbia. Unlike the first situation, it takes the place of an earlier period of openness and relative freedom of circulation enjoyed by the citizens of former Yugoslavia. Our assumption was that, in the first case, the departure and the mobility of scientists contribute to the multiplication of links between Poland, Russia and the rest of Europe, whereas in the second, the departure of top scientists deprives the countries in question of an élite necessary for the rebuilding of the country and its democratization.