International student migration and the European ‘Year Abroad’: effects on European identity and subsequent migration behaviour

Abstract

This paper ®rst draws attention to the scant literature in population geography on international student migration, or ISM. Yet students comprise an important element in global and European population mobility, especially of highly skilled movements. This study is set within the context of intraEuropean ISM and looks speci®cally at thè Year Abroad experience' which has been subsidised over the past 15 years by the Erasmus and Socrates programmes. Empirical data come from questionnaire surveys to three groups of University of Sussex students, surveyed during 2000±01. The main survey was a large postal survey to graduates who had spent a year abroad (YA) in another European country as part of their Sussex degree. This questionnaire was designed to test two sets of hypotheses: ®rstly that the YA had given students/graduates a more`European' identity or consciousness, and a greater insight into European issues; and secondly that YA graduates would be more likely to pursue their subsequent career/migration paths in continental Europe. These hypotheses were tested against a control sample of Sussex graduates who had not been on a YA, matched by degree type and time of graduation. A third sample was undertaken with second-year undergraduate students about to embark on their YA, in order to test pre-and post-YA perspectives. The results broadly con®rm the research hypotheses, although with a variety of nuances and outcomes.

Financing Higher Education When Students and Graduates Are Internationally Mobile

“…Around 70% decide to stay in the US for their first job and that stay rate is a good predictor of the location of those researchers ten years later. This is also confirmed by, e.g., Di Pietro (2012), Dreher and Poutvaara (2011), King and Ruiz-Gelices (2003), Oosterbeek andWebbink (2011), Parey andWaldinger (2011) and Voin and Gérard (2013).…”

A Second Chance at ‘Success’

“…For example, drawing on their data on student migration within Europe, King and Ruiz-Gelices (2003) contend that 'students who choose to study abroad are taking a significant step in setting in motion their own individualised life projects' (p.245), suggesting that there are strong similarities between educational migration and other forms of youth mobility -such as gap year travel. However, our data indicate that while young people choosing to study abroad are certainly not following a 'standard biography', they are not necessarily carving out individualised pathways for themselves.…”

Why do they return? Beyond the economic drivers of graduate return migration

“…In this scenario, social networks offer insights to why having previous migration experience-as in the case of FMG-can increase the likelihood of future migration (Davanzo 1983;Oosterbeek and Webbink 2011;Salt 1997). For example the recipients of the ERASMUS programme are significantly more likely to be mobile throughout their lives (Guellec and Cervantes 2002;King and Ruiz-Gelices 2003;Parey and Waldinger 2011). In a similar vein, by focusing on the impact of a scheme granting scholarships to students resident in the Italian less developed region of Basilicata, Coniglio and Prota (2008) found that student mobility significantly increases the likelihood of future migration thanks to its impact on the shape and geographical scope of social networks.…”

“…The potential risk of brain drain associated with SM has been acknowledged by both scholars (King and Ruiz-Gelices 2003;Oosterbeek and Webbink 2011;Parey and Waldinger 2011) and policy makers (European Commission 2002). As a result, a number of schemes have been designed in order to mitigate brain drain problems by means of incentives paid to returners (or to employers in their home regions) relying on the assumption that locational choices are made according to economic utility.…”