Skilled Labour Migration and Positive Externality: The Case of Turkish Engineers Working Abroad

Abstract

This study aims at exploring potential positive externalities of skilled labour migration from Turkey and highlighting social policies targeting ''brain drain to brain gain'' strategies in the case of Turkish engineers living abroad. Based on case study and further investigations, the skilled labour migration among Turkish engineers can be defined as a ''brain over-flow.'' The main structural reason of this situation is discrepancy between educational and employment policies. Data indicate that it can be obtain positive externalities from skilled labour migration under certain conditions. Ninety per cent of all participants intended to give support to development practices in Turkey, even if they were not returning (n-130). Only 10 per cent of all participants didn't intend to give any kind of support. Cooperative projects, establishment of networks, forums and consultancy services to Turkish companies, were the most mentioned support manners. To realize these proposals, it is essential to develop active public policies aiming at a ''brain drain to brain gain'' approach, for short-and long-term periods.

Why High School Students Aspire to Emigrate: Evidence from Greece

“…Looking into the migration of Chinese students and skilled professionals in the USA, Zweig (1997) suggests that they belong economically to the middle and educationally to the higher classes. Similarly, Gökbayrak's (2009) research on the migration of engineers from Turkey shows that they belong to the higher and middle classes, they have studied in prestigious universities and their parents have a high educational level. Labrianidis' (2011) seminal research on brain drain confirms these findings for Greece where the vast majority (more than 80 %) of skilled migrants come from the higher and middle socio-economic and educational strata; they went to 'good' schools and graduated from one of the top 100 universities in the world.…”

Motivational diversity and the sense of ill-treatment back home among the UK’s migrant workers from Turkey: A cross-intersectional approach

“…Better educated youths from middle-class families are not necessarily making money abroad. On the contrary, they occasionally receive financial backing from Turkey (Gokbayrak, 2012) to study English or a postgraduate degree in order to take home new skills (Dustmann and Weiss, 2007; Gungor and Tansel, 2008).…”

“…Economic growth in Turkey has produced middle classes with better educated populations. Research has shown an upward trend in the migration of well-educated people, creating a diverse community of migrants in terms of qualifications (Gokbayrak, 2012). Such populations had been predicted to invest in social, cultural and human capital (Gungor and Tansel, 2008).…”

The Economics of International Student and Scholar Mobility: Directions for Research

“…Portugal (Baruffaldi and Landoni, 2013), Spain (Bordons et al, 2015;Canibano et al, 2011) and Turkey (Gokbayrak, 2012;Matthews, 2007). Finally, recent simulations also found that declines in international students in the UK as a result of BREXIT would lead to declines in intra-European economic connectivity and sharp declines in GDP (Tijssen et al, 2017;Portes and Forte, 2017).…”