Poland is the biggest victim of the brain drain in Europe

Nearly 580,000 After studying last year, the Poles lived in a different country than the EU. This is the largest of the 28 EU countries – according to the report on brain drain, prepared for the European Committee of the Regions.

As stated in the paper presented Wednesday in Brussels, intra-European mobility – understood as the flow of workers – only concerns a small percentage of Europeans, but in some parts of the Union it resulted in brain drain. In 2017, the population of the EU was about 511 million citizens. All working-age people who moved – mainly to work – to another EU country (not only highly qualified), there were almost 17 million, or only around 3%. Two countries – Germany (33%) and the United Kingdom (20%) – attracted more than half of these people. Of the 17 million Europeans who changed their country of residence, one in four (about 4.2 million) went on to higher education. The share of highly skilled employees among migrants in 2014-2017 has steadily increased. The highest increase was recorded at that time among employees in Hungary (51%), Croatia (46%) and Slovakia (41%). "In absolute numbers, the highest number of people best educated in 2017 came from Poland (576,300), Germany (472,700) and Romania (467,500)" – was calculated in the report.

Those educated as targets most often chose cities located in the northern part of the Union – Sweden, Ireland, Estonia, Denmark – and several regions of Britain. The regions of Italy proved to be the least attractive for these employees.

The employment rates of highly skilled migrants from 28 EU countries were, with a few exceptions, very high throughout the Union. The highest rate, equivalent to full employment (100%), concerns two Czech regions (Severozápad and Stredni Morava), Corsica (France) and Lincolnshire in the United Kingdom. The lowest employment rate was recorded in Campania, southern Italy (52.7%).

The authors of the paper point out that, in some areas of the Union, the free movement of workers has led to a significant migration of educated people and, hence, a phenomenon of brain drain. According to them, this is due to the growing competition for talent and the limited capacity of regions abandoned to create attractive conditions for these employees.

"The social and economic situation of the host regions is one of the most important factors that attract highly qualified employees" – noted the report. In this context, the following are mentioned: economic growth, higher wages, strong social security, high GDP per capita, linguistic similarity, cultural similarity, easier access to the labor market and, for example, a well-established economy based on knowledge.

In regions affected by drainage, mobility aggravates negative conditions in the labor market – high unemployment and low wages. Other "tension" factors include administrative barriers, recession and poor political climate.

The negative effects of the brain drain include, among other things, lack of employees, limited capacity to innovate and the adoption of more advanced technologies. The so-called. brain drain also leads to fiscal consequences (reduction of tax revenues), market (reduction of consumption), limits economic growth and further reduces productivity. On the other hand, the positive effects for regions in which qualified employees come, result from the growth of innovation potential, economic growth, increased competitive advantage and growth in consumption and demand for services (eg housing).

However, the negative impact on the entire system is a "brain waste". This occurs when highly skilled employees emigrate to another region (in another EU country) without having sufficient knowledge of the need for manpower. He ends up being unemployed or in a profession that does not require high skills.

As pointed out in the report, there are still obstacles to the mobility of the workforce in the EU, regardless of the free movement of workers. These barriers are common to all employees, regardless of their skill level. Among them, the language barrier is crucial. The proof of this phenomenon must be observed phenomenon of high mobility in the neighboring regions of different countries which have the same language. Cultural differences, the lack of information on the demand for local labor and the lack of full recognition of qualifications are other obstacles.

Guaranteed by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the free movement of workers is one of the four economic freedoms of the Community (including the free movement of goods, services and capital).