Intentions to stay or to return among highly skilled Latvians in the EU: who is more likely to return?

ABSTRACT

In the context of university-diploma drain from Latvia, this article analyzes how labor market integration and attachment to the host and home countries of highly skilled Latvian emigrants in Europe shape their intentions to stay abroad or return to Latvia. The study is based on a quantitative analysis of survey data (n = 820). The results of binary logistic regression analyzes reveal that close ties with Latvia have a significant positive effect on return intentions, and that the return intention of economically-active highly skilled Latvian migrants is mostly a non-economic phenomenon.

KEYWORDS:

• Return migration
• highly skilled migrants
• post-accession migration
• Latvia

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund, Activity 1.1.1.2 “Post-doctoral Research Aid” under Grant No. 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/012, Project: “Migration of highly qualified specialists: emigration and return migration in Latvia.”

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The European Regional Development Fund, Activity 1.1.1.2 ‘Post-doctoral Research Aid’, Project ‘Migration of highly qualified specialists: emigration and return migration in Latvia’. [Grant Nr. 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/012].

Notes on contributors

Inese Šūpule

Inese Šūpule is a sociologist and researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Latvia. Her fields of expertise are ethnic studies, migration, society integration, education, language use and knowledge, and ethnic politics.