BRAIN DRAIN:
BRAIN EXCHANGE
International mobility rates of skilled and talented people are very high in Lithuania. Over the past seven years nearly 50% of Lithuanian scientists have experienced brain exchange.
The most common and widespread trips abroad are related to participation in conferences, seminars, workshops, etc. Scholarships and short-term (less than 3 months) studies abroad are also rather common in Lithuania. They are followed by migration for the purpose of participation in joint research projects or joint research work. Other forms of brain exchange, especially those implying a longer stay abroad (post-graduate studies for more than 3 months, studies to obtain a doctor's degree, permanent part-time jobs abroad), are less typical for the Lithuanian academic community.
In comparing mobility experience of experts from various scientific fields, differences become obvious. Social scientists turn out to be most mobile, whereas scientists from engineering and technical disciplines have the lowest migration experience. On the other hand, the latter outnumber other scientific fields by the proportion of people having permanent part-time job experience abroad.
Brain exchange could be even more pronounced, but for the difficulties of finding financial assistance. At present the majority of all foreign trips are sponsored by host organizations or other foreign funds. Local financial sources play an insignificant role, the situation being similar in all scientific disciplines. Despite the above-mentioned financial dependence on foreign partners, brain exchange of Lithuanian scientists does not promise to be less intensive in future, and over 1/3 of respondents of the survey intend to move abroad (temporarily, up to 6 months) in future.
During the 1990s brain exchange has changed as far as host countries are concerned:
migration to the East has drastically decreased, while migration to the West has increased.
The data of the survey show that this will not change in future (nearly 80% of foreign scientific trips are forecasted to be made to Western countries).
Other forms of collaboration with foreign scientists, e.g. participation in joint projects, publications in foreign journals, etc. are now becoming quite widespread among Lithuanian scientists. The Scandinavian countries, Germany, France, the USA and the UK could be mentioned as the main countries of collaboration.
Zdzislaw Fiejka
Institute of Economics
Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland Renata Suchocka
Institute of Sociology
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland
MIGRATION
EUROPE'S INTEGRATION AND THE LABOUR FORCE
BRAIN DRAIN
POLAND
I. Introduction
The PECO/COST migration project is the most comprehensive project in a recent series of sample surveys on the actual and potential migration of scientists during Poland's transition to a market-based economy.
Earlier investigations used very brief questionnaires and focused mostly on migration of scientists during the period preceding the collapse of the communist regime and/or covering the first years of political and economic transformation of the country1.
In Poland the political and economic crisis of the eighties led to a huge wave of migration.
Official statistics seriously underestimated the extent of this phenomenon, as only those individuals were recorded who filed official papers, and declared that they were leaving the country for good. The actual number of emigrants is estimated by independent researchers at 1.073 to 1.317 million between 1980 and 1989, absorbing 36.4 to 44.7
% of the population growth. Emigration was highest in 1988 and 19892. Emigrants with higher education degrees constituted 6.6% of officially recorded migration, but were as high as 13.0% of the much larger, officially unrecorded migration. No statistical data exist regarding migration of scientists. Emigration of scientists was at its highest between 1981 and 1984; less so by half between 1989 and 1991. The PECO/COST research provides fresh data on emigration of scientists in the years 1988-1994 and undertakes an investigation of professional mobility and potential migration of scientist during a period of Poland's fast growth and transition to a market-based economy.
II. Characteristics of the sample
The sample surveys covered Warsaw, Poznan and Lublin. Warsaw is Poland's biggest university centre and a major area of science and research and development activities with more than one third of the country's science and research personnel. Poznan and Lublin represent two of the country's seven larger provincial universities and research and development centres. These two cities share one common feature of interest for the present study. In earlier research on migration of Polish scientists during the pre-reform years, these two university centres have been recorded with the lowest emigration rates, respectively 4.5 and 6.3 per cent. Warsaw with 10.5 per cent of foreign drain was ranked above the national average of 9.5 per cent3. On the other hand the Poznan and Warsaw scholars were recorded in earlier studies with the highest reported success rates for continuing employment in science in post-emigration careers. The Lublin scholars were recorded among the lowest rates.
1 Janusz Hryniewicz, Bohdan Jalowiecki, Agnieszak Mync. Ucieczka mozgow ze szkolnictwa wyzszego I nauki (The Brain Drain in Poland), Uniwersytet Warszawski. 8(41). 1992; Bohdan Jalowiecki, Janusz Hryniewicz, Anieszka Mync, Ucieczka mozgow z nauki I szkolnicrwa vyzszego w Polsce w latach 1993, Raport z badan (The Brain Drain from Science and Universities in Poland. 1992-1993), Uniwersytet Warszawski, 14(47), 1994.
2 Marek Okolski, Migracje zagraniczne w Polsce w latach 1980-1989. Zarys problemaryki badawczej. Studia Demograficzne 3(117) 2994.
Transformation to a market-based economy is progressing in Poland at an uneven pace with regard to its regions. Warsaw and the Western part of the country, including the Poznan area, are enjoying recovery, while the city of Lublin and the Eastern part of the country are behind as far as economic transformation is concerned. Transformation and adaptation of the science and research and development institutes to a market-based economy show similar trends. The combined Warsaw, Poznan and Lublin sample provides a representative picture of the country's diversified development and migration trends.
The survey sample consists of a population of scientists employed in 49 institutes, with 30 institutions representing Warsaw, 13 Poznan and 6 Lublin. The overall sample represents approximately 10 per cent of Poland's scientific personnel.
The sample quite well approximates the country's research staff engaged in R&D work and its distribution between the natural and technical science, but
underrepresents the social sciences.
University employees are underrepresented in the overall sample, particularly in the case of Poznan and Lublin.
The overall survey sample (the total for Warsaw, Lublin and Poznan) for real migration of scientific personnel in the years 1988-1994 consists of 1344 questionnaires and that for potential migration of 1174 questionnaires. The same institutes participated in both surveys.
III. Real migration, 1988-1994
A. Internal migration
During 1988-1994, a dominant, declared reason for leaving employment in a scientific institution was the transfer to another state or non-governmental research institute or to business and consulting companies. The internal
movements to such a broadly defined research sector accounted for more than a quarter of all migration during the period under investigation.
' Bohdan Jalowiecki, er al op. cit., p. 139
Olga Gyarfasova Miroslav Kuska
Center for Social and Market Analysis Bratislava, Slovak Republic