Brain Drain from Central and Eastern Europe

When communism collapsed many feared that the resulting 'brain drain' would both cripple the economies of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and finally result in a flow of scientific and technical expertise into undesirable weapon development. A collaborative survey carried out in ten Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, however, has revealed that the brain drain was much less serious than once feared. It also shows that the EU programmes supporting science in Central and Eastern Europe have the potential to contribute towards greater stability and to encourage scientists to remain in their home institutes. Social scientists recognized the need to help the former communist states through their inevitable period of transition and instability As an initial step, the BRAIN-DRAIN project was set up to monitor and analyze the movement of scientific staff in and from ten former communist countries. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The objectives were to study the loss of academic staff from academies of science, universities and research institutes; to distinguish between academic groups which were more or less inclined to migrate according to professional areas of interest, age, ethnic background, level of qualification; and to collect information about working conditions and other motivations for leaving or staying. The project was financed by the European Commission and carried out within the framework of COST. The present publication contains a synthesis report on the studies carried out in the different countries as well as summary reports from the countries which participated in the project. Though the reports are different in size and structure, they still give a valuable overview on the situation of emigration and brain drain after the political and economic changes in Central and Eastern Europe.