Dynamics of Educational Differences in Emigration From Estonia to the Old Eu Member States

Abstract

The study analyzes the changes in emigration from Estonia in order to shed more light on East-West migration, contributing to the main debate on "brain drain" by focusing on educational differences in emigration. We use anonymous individual level data for all emigrants from the register-based Estonian Emigration Database compiled by Statistics Estonia for the period 2000-2008. The analysis shows that there has been no significant brain drain from Estonia as the new EU member state during this period. Moreover, we find evidence of a spreading of the emigration norm into a wider range of population groups, including the less educated, since Estonia joined the European Union in 2004.

Coping with Emigration in Baltic and East European Countries

“…Chapter 4; Anniste, 2012). The profile best matches that of a circular migrant: a labour migrant who works abroad on a temporary basis because of unfavourable labour circumstances in his country of origin.…”

“…The proportion of university-educated people in the emigrant population is much lower than in the general Estonian population, and has further decreased since Estonia joined the European Union in 2004 (Anniste et al, 2012).…”

“…Since then, Estonia has experienced two significant waves of emigration, the first in the 1990s and the second in the 2000s. Emigration from Estonia to the older EU member states 2 increased in the 2000s compared to the 1990s (Pungas et al, 2012). This chapter focuses on the second wage of emigration, concentrating on data from 2004 on.…”

“…Nonetheless, data on emigration are still incomplete, as people do not always deregister in Estonia when moving to another country. This is a common phenomenon in most emigration countries (Anniste et al, 2012).…”

Finnish Highly Skilled Migrants and the European Economic Crisis

“…For example, after accession to the EU in 2004 and 2007, most of the 12 new Eastern and Central European Member States experienced significant outmigration. This applied also to the Baltic countries Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia (e.g., Krisjane Berzins & Apsite, 2013;Anniste et al, 2012). While the impact of mobility from these new Member States has been extensively studied (e.g., Favell, 2008b;Glorious et al, 2013), less is known about mobility from Finland and Sweden, the Nordic countries that joined the EU already in 1995.…”