Italian Scientists Abroad in Europe's Scientific Research Scenario: High skill migration as a resource for development in Italy
| Published date | 01 August 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12340 |
| Date | 01 August 2017 |
Italian Scientists Abroad in Europe’s
Scientific Research Scenario: High skill
migration as a resource for development in
Italy
Stefano Sbalchiero* and Arjuna Tuzzi*
ABSTRACT
In recent years, the brain drain issue has gained such momentum that it has become necessary to
adopt tools and methods to take a pictureof a phenomenon that is, by its very nature, dynamic and
changeable (Portes, 1976; Meyer, 2001; Ackers, 2005; Scott, 2015). This particular study focuses
on clarifying the reasons why Italian scientists choose to lookelsewhere for the best place to con-
duct their scientific research, and in what way their scientific experience abroad shapes the image
of the Italian scientific system. A first exploratory analysis involving 83 in-depth interviews with
Italian scientists (mathematicians, engineers and physicists) working in Europe was conducted
based on qualitative and quantitative analytical methods, and the content emerging from these
interviews was used for a systematic mapping of the situation that provided the foundations for
our preparation of a second tool –a questionnaire –that was subsequently used to conduct a much
more broad-based survey that involved 602 respondents. While our findings add complexity to
existing theories on the brain drain and brain circulation, they also confirm the potential of highly
skilled migration to improve thenational development of Italian academic system.
1. INTRODUCTION
For several years now, there has been a somewhat light-hearted debate in the Italian public arena
concerning the brain drain, particularly inasmuch as it involves Italian scientists who have moved
abroad, been successful in their field, and received important acknowledgements outside their home
country. In the scientific debate, efforts have often been made to describe the impact of the migra-
tion of scientists and other highly-skilled workers from emerging countries (Khadria, 2001; Pelle-
grino, 2001) towards the USA or other Western and Chinese centres of excellence (Lorey, 1992;
Zhao, 1996; Meyer 1999, 2012; Docquier, 2006; Zweig, 2008; Harvey, 2009; Lee & Kim, 2010),
while the topic of scientists migrating within Europe and its various scientific scenarios has been
much less thoroughly (Ziman, 1991; Ban, 2012; Marcu, 2014).
European institutions provide funding and have specific programs to promote the circulation of
researchers among Member States and Europe has become a market where the stronger countries
attract the best scientists from weaker countries. From this point of view, the world of scientific
research can be seen as a social system in which research opportunities and the symbolic and mate-
rial compensation awarded for research work tend to accumulate and become concentrated at a few
* University of Padova
doi: 10.1111/imig.12340
©2017 The Authors
International Migration ©2017 IOM
International Migration Vol. 55 (4) 2017
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
particular locations and institutions, according to the principle of Merton’s Matthew effect: newly
available resources will be shared among the social actors in proportion to what they already have,
so those who have more, will acquire even more (Merton, 1968). Leaving aside for a moment the
value of internationalizing research, this kind of institutionalized “brain drain –brain gain”equa-
tion warrants a careful monitoring of its expected and unexpected effects on the competition among
Member States (in the medium-to-long term too), but a serious debate on these European policies
risks raising an issue that is rather delicate for the EU’s internal equilibrium (Bonnacorsi & Daraio,
2003; Van der Wende, 2015).
Recent policies adopted by Member States to contain or prevent the emigration of their most tal-
ented scientists (Lowell, 2001) have failed, partly under the influence of the present international
economic and political situation (Brandi, 2001; Beltrame, 2007; Milio et al., 2012). While the liter-
ature acknowledges the migration of highly-skilled workers a positive influence on the circulation
of ideas, discoveries and knowledge (Iredale, 2001; Brandi, 2004; Harvey 2012; Scellato et al,
2015), there is a shortage of statistics on scientific mobility, and a lack of reliable indicators for the
purpose of drawing international comparisons (Beltrame, 2007; Docquier, Lowell, & Marfouk,
2009; Zubieta, 2009). Recent data indicate that Italy has an outgoing flow of scientists, that few of
them return, and that, unlike other countries (Guth, 2007; Ackers & Gill, 2008; Guth & Gill,
2008), Italy cannot count on an incoming flow of foreign scientists to replace them (Ackers, 2005;
Balduzzi & Rosina, 2011; Daraio & Moed, 2011; Franzoni, et al. 2012; Teichler & Cavalli, 2015a;
2015b;).
To make matters worse, the voice of Italy’s scientists living and doing science elsewhere is
absent in the public debate and in the scientific literature, while they could play a key role in the
development of their home country. A research project funded by the University of Padova
1
seeks
to fill this gap. The study design was characterized by a first qualitative data collection phase, fol-
lowed by a mixed methods analysis (using qualitative and quantitative approaches), then a phase of
quantitative data collection and analysis (Creswell & Clark, 2011). In the resulting study, in-depth
interviews were conducted with 83 scientists, while 602 scientists completed a web-based question-
naire. The study, which aimed to clarify what the scientific systems of other European countries
have to offer that Italy lacks, considering international migration (Van Dalen & Henkens, 2007) as
“an integral part of development”(Skeldon, 2008, p. 1), also referred to the repercussions of high
skill migration in development policy of their home country.
2. DATA COLLECTION
2.1. Interviews
In the preliminary stages of the research program, appropriate participants for our interviews were
defined as Italian graduates with a PhD. in mathematics, physics or engineering who had been con-
ducting research in a European country (other than Italy) for at least five years. Six countries were
chosen in order to compare different European scientific settings: France, Germany, Netherlands,
Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. These criteria were adopted to ensure that intervie-
wees could draw on a variety of experiences when describing their situation, and to see how their
personal decision to do science elsewhere related to the duration of their scientific careers, the local
scientific context, and the specific features of their adopted countries.
Since there is no official source capable of providing a full list of Italian scientists working
abroad, several relevant gatekeepers for each scientific discipline were contacted first to obtain
information about their fields of interest in the different European countries, and to identify and
invite appropriate potential interviewees. Given the importance of selecting appropriate candidates,
172 Sbalchiero and Tuzzi
©2017 The Authors. International Migration ©2017 IOM
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