Why do they return? Beyond the economic drivers of graduate return migration

Enrico Orru’,Riccardo Crescenzi,Nancy Holman

doi:10.1007/s00168-016-0762-9

Enrico Orru’, Riccardo Crescenzi + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-016-0762-9

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Abstract

This paper explores the factors that shape the location choices of formerly mobile graduates (FMGs) initially resident in Sardinia, Italy, a less developed European region. Combining qualitative and quantitative techniques, the paper examines the reasons why some individuals decide to return after their studies, the factors that shape their decisions and how these choices unfolded in space and time. It counters the literature, which suggests that migration is a one-off linear process driven only by wealth-maximising behaviour, positing rather that access to opportunities in open meritocratic job markets and circular migration trajectories are far more salient to FMGs. This suggests that policy makers should concentrate on promoting labour market opportunities and invest in social networks that will aid brain circulation.

Highlights

There has been a long-held belief in European policy circles that funding student mobility (SM) will bring about positive net benefits to Europe, its nation states and Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.regions and to individuals
This paper aims to contribute to these debates by exploring the factors that shape the location choices of formerly mobile graduates
The results suggest that being located in other Italian regions is not advantageous in terms of individual incomes: the net monthly income of individuals located in other Italian regions is not statistically different from that of individuals who decided to return to Sardinia

Summary

Introduction

There has been a long-held belief in European policy circles that funding student mobility (SM) will bring about positive net benefits to Europe, its nation states and Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00168-016-0762-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.regions and to individuals. Countless schemes have been launched promising to enhance the human capital and employability of funding recipients, to increase knowledge flows between economic systems and even to boost an overall sense of European citizenship. This is especially true for less developed regions, SM can lead to a number of unwanted negative effects. A number of schemes have been designed in order to mitigate brain drain problems by means of incentives paid to returners (or to employers in their home regions) relying on the assumption that locational choices are made according to economic utility. Academic studies pertaining to brain circulation and SM are still in their infancy and do not yet provide a clear and conclusive explanation of what fosters return migration of formerly mobile graduates (FMG) (Milio et al 2012; Thorn and Holm-nielsen 2008)

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