An Evaluation of Researchers' Migration Patterns in Europe using Digital Trace Data

TL;DR

This study leverages digital trace data from ORCID to analyze European researchers' migration patterns, revealing that high mobility correlates with regional academic prestige, investments, and education levels, challenging traditional brain drain views.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using digital trace data to assess regional research mobility and redefines the understanding of researcher migration in Europe.

Findings

High mobility linked to university prestige

Researcher migration correlates with regional investments

Regions with better schooling levels see more researcher movement

Abstract

The comprehension of the mechanisms behind the mobility of skilled workers is of paramount importance for policy making. The lacking nature of official measurements motivates the use of digital trace data extracted from ORCID public records. We use such data to investigate European regions, studied at NUTS2 level, over the time horizon of 2009 to 2020. We present a novel perspective where regions roles are dictated by the overall activity of the research community, contradicting the common brain drain interpretation of the phenomenon. We find that a high mobility is usually correlated with strong university prestige, high magnitude of investments and an overall good schooling level in a region.