The battle for talent within the EU is a story about both brain drain and gain. Of the 17 million people aged 15–64 migrating within the EU1, around 4.5 million are highly skilled workers and students. Factors known for attracting these people from their home regions are economic growth, higher wages, robust social security, linguistic and cultural similarity, relatively easier access to the labour market and higher employment rates.2
In contrast, the brain drain phenomenon arises when a region can not compete and suffers a permanent loss of skilled workers or students.
Luxembourg is a region with almost equal in- and out-migration. In 2017 the net migration rate was 0.3 persons per 1,000 inhabitants.
Receiving regions generally have considerably higher GDP per capita, whilst sending regions come off below the EU average.3
Sending regions appear to be located in most of Portugal and Greece, in Spain, the north-eastern parts of France, the northern parts of Finland, the Baltic States and in several parts of Eastern Europe.
Receiving regions are generally found in northern areas of the EU, e.g Sweden, Ireland, Estonia, Denmark and the UK.
The battle for the brains
The nature of the migration flows differs considerably across Europe. Some regions attract and gain highly educated workers, while others lose them. In this section we look closer at the education level of the newcomers, compared to the domestic population. Do the migrants4 affect the supply of skilled labour?
These are some of the key findings for Luxembourg:
- Europeans that have moved to Luxembourg generally have a lower education level than workers born in Belgium (29 percent of EU movers had higher education, compared to 34 percent in the workforce as a whole).
- Luxembourg ranks average in the EU for receiving highly educated migrants. 5
- In the past ten years the education level among EU migrants in Luxembourg has risen considerably (+10 percent points).
- In the same time the education level among the whole workforce in Luxembourg has also increased (+8 percent points).
Region | Share of EU migrants that have higher education | |
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1. | Brabant Wallon | 60% |
2. | Brussels | 57% |
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7. | the province of Luxembourg | 29% |
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10. | West-Vlaanderen | 23% |
11. | Hainaut | 23% |
Lower employment than domestic workforce
In general, highly educated workers in the EU that have moved to another EU country find employment at more or less the same level as the domestic workforce.
In Luxembourg the employment rate for highly educated newcomers is lower than the rate for workers born in Belgium (73 percent compared to 83 percent among all educated workers in Luxembourg).
Region | Employment level among highly educted EU workers | |
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1. | Limburg | 87% |
2. | West-Vlaanderen | 86% |
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10. | Oost-Vlaanderen | 76% |
11. | the province of Luxembourg | 73% |
What about the future? Reports on the modern knowledge economy say that high skilled immigration will continue to boost economic growth in the attractive regions. Income differentials combined with differences in living standards between regions will remain the primary driver of economic migration. The demand for skilled labour is robust. By 2025 nearly half of all new expected job openings in the EU is expected to target highly qualified workers6.