Emigration of high-skilled professionals from less developed countries to 
developed countries leaves the sending countries economies with a reduced supply of skilled people. The resulting brain drain would limit the use of educational investment in the sending countries, creating conditions for their re-use by the more developed countries. Skilled emigration has been analyzed according to two contrasting models: the model of the exodus that stresses the idea that more skilled individuals are forced to the exile, allowing them to get a job and a remuneration corresponding to their training; the model of the Diaspora that stresses the mutual benefits of intercultural exchanges opened by the circulation of cosmopolitan elites. This stream aims to discuss the comprehensive power of each of these theses referencing to the mobility of highly qualified Portuguese professionals to Europe in the last decade. Portugal is one of the European countries where the drain is more accentuated in the last decade, estimated at 19,5%. Expected papers will deal with the theme of outflows (and inflows) of high-skilled professionals from (or to) Portugal; factors affecting migration decisions; specific flows involving academics and scientists; immigrants' incorporation in the labour market in the destination countries evaluating the amount of deskilling or, alternatively, the adequate use of skills in new occupations); and links maintained with the Portuguese society, including the amount of transnational connections and return. Moreover, papers delving with the recent impact of the crisis will be particularly welcomed, as well as those stressing the current European dimension of flows, either from the point of view of host countries, particularly at Central and Northern EU countries, or from sending ones, particularly at the South. The fact that several research projects on high-skilled flows in Portugal are currently being developed or were recently concluded is a promising indicator of the success of this stream. 

Ver o programa completo da conferência, aqui.