Brain Drain or Brain Circulation? Economic and Non-Economic Factors Driving the International Migration of German Citizens

Abstract

AbstractInternational movements by people from economically highly developed welfare states are a puzzle for the classic canon of migration theories, which generally focus on flows from less to more developed regions. Based on a simple theoretical framework linking largely disparate literatures on international and internal migration as well as the field of global work experience, this chapter provides an analysis of the emigration and remigration decisions of German citizens. Whereas the five theoretical dimensions-expected financial returns, job satisfaction, social capital, mobility capital, and employment in transnational professions-already explain much of the variance in the emigration decisions, the theoretical and empirical understanding of remigration decision-making processes remains a challenge. Contributing to recent debates about a brain drain from economically highly developed countries, this chapter provides evidence that the international migration of German citizens is best understood as brain circulation. Temporary migration dominates these international movements and emigrants are similar to remigrants along many theoretical dimensions. Although some indications for a potential loss of human capital caused by international migration do exist, they remain insignificant in light of Germany’s overall volume of international migration. Political debates about flows of people from highly developed countries should focus less on potential losses of human capital for national economies and more on the economic and non-economic returns international migration offers for individual life courses.