Policy Paper: Brain Gain Policies and Their Impact on the European Integration Process of Albania.
This policy paper is supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Think Tank Fund, Open Society Institute (OSI).

Migration of high skilled workers, known as brain drain1, is a relatively spread phenomena in both developed and developing countries. Brain drain is usually understood as the permanent loss of a vital driving force of any country. More specifically, the mass emigration of highly skilled persons from a country or region implies the weakening of the human potential necessary for social changes and development. In most cases, this potential is difficult to replace in one generation and several generations of qualified persons are needed to compensate the loss. Brain drain has severe negative and damaging effects particularly on fragile transition economies, because highly educated people are a rare resource.
The brain drain phenomenon of the countries of the South-East Europe is determined to a large extent by common “push factors’ such as troubled economies, political instability, severe unemployment, and lack of respect of human rights, including the right to work. All these are especially true for post-communist societies, which are faced with the challenge of including the educated elite in the transition reforms that must take place to intensify bonds with the European Union.
The brain drain phenomena concerns many developed countries as well. The fact that different Western European countries continuously suffer from brain drain of science and technology experts (mainly immigrating to USA or Japan) stands to prove that it is not simply a matter of guaranteeing good basic conditions, but also a competitive and visionary environment.