Head Hunting in the European Continent

The modern world is built in such a way that rivalry between countries on “who is higher, stronger, richer” is in the plane of display of intellectual superiority, scientific discoveries, technologies developed and being used, and not just on the availability of power and influence zones. Studies on the mobility of skilled personnel and scientists found that each one of them one day would have to make a choice: Europe or America. What factors influence the choice of the European continent and how is “head hunting” taking place in EU member states? What experience and practices may be useful in attracting skilled workers and scientists to Russia?

“Technology, talent and tolerance
– Europe thrives on innovation.
Europe without a constant and ever-increasing
force of change would never have become
the Europe we know today”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, (2007).

The modern world is built in such a way that rivalry between countries on “who is higher, stronger, richer” is in the plane of display of intellectual superiority, scientific discoveries, technologies developed and being used, and not just on the availability of power and influence zones. Studies on the mobility of skilled personnel and scientists found that each one of them one day would have to make a choice: Europe or America. What factors influence the choice of the European continent and how is “head hunting” taking place in EU member states? What experience and practices may be useful in attracting skilled workers and scientists to Russia?

Europe’s Blue Card

Countries of the European Union, as recipients of migrants, are essentially losing ground as compared to the United States, Canada and Australia, which are also interested in attracting the best skilled and talented workers. Europe today is taking 85% of unskilled migrant workers and less than 0.9% of professionals, while 9.9% of highly skilled workers from the total number of migrants from third countries are choosing Australia, 7.3% – Canada, 3.5% – the United States.

This interest is due to several factors: English language is primarily the language of international communication; the United States has no employment age limit, including in educational institutions (65 is the retirement age in most EU countries); in contrast to European immigration legislation, in the USA and Oceania, an immigrant can obtain citizenship of the host country during life there [1].

In order to change the current situation, in 2008 EU leaders announced a new initiative – the so-called “Blue Card” – meant to attract highly skilled professionals. It allows highly skilled non-EU citizens towork and live in the EU in a lightweight manner. The idea received legal clearance in the EU Directive of 2009

Фото: www.arbeit-und-arbeitsrecht.de

The idea of the United States’ Green Card lies at the heart of the European Blue Card. The differences are in their validity period (two years for the Blue Card against the ten years period for the Green Card), methods of obtaining them (Green Card – work, lottery, family reunification, residence in the country; Blue Card – confirmation of workplace, recognition of academic credentials, at least three years of professional experience) and outcome (Green Card – at the end of five years, one is given the right to become a U.S. citizen; Blue Card – after five years of residence, one is only given the right to permanent residence in the country).

Interestingly, despite extensive debates at the national parliaments of EU member countries, the idea has not received full endorsement and support. Moreover, a number of political figures and leaders in the EU states opposed this European initiative. The United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland rejected the Blue Card proposal. Austrian and German politicians have expressed serious doubts about the need for such innovation, however, the parliaments of these countries ratified the Directive.

Prophets in own Fatherland or where to get skilled personnel needed by the country

In 1997, the European Council adopted a document, whose importance and influence on the migration of skilled workers and scientists were realized and appreciated much later. The Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region required participating countries to create a mechanism for evaluating certificates/academic credentials, including those obtained in third countries, and their equivalent recognition that meets the standards of national education system (Article 1 of the Convention) of states in Europe. France, Germany, Norway, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland were among the first to sign the document.

Finland was the pioneer that recognized the contractual provisions in the national Act of 1998 on the criteria for evaluation of foreign education and qualification.

In 2003, Denmark adopted the Assessment of Foreign Qualifications etc. (Consolidation) Act, which became a model for many countries in Europe. The Danish law is based on the following principles:

• recognition of each and every educational certificate/diploma obtained in other states;
• search for the national equivalent in education reflecting the applicant’s qualification with the issuance of a national certificate (Article 2);
• free help and advice in the process of recognition of academic and professional qualifications, a four-week period for consideration of application (Article 5);
• rule of law, transparency and equality in the work of competent authorities.

A similar law – Federal law on Improving the Status and Recognition of Qualifications Acquired Abroad – was approved by the German Bundestag in 2011 and entered into force in 2012.

At the dawn of the XXI century, European countries are concerned about the undiscovered and unused potentials of EU citizens with immigrant background, third country nationals living in Europe – namely, their level of education, academic and professional qualifications, and skills under demand in the new environment. In 2010, the German Ministry of Labor submitted a study entitled Brain Waste, the results of which were fully supported by both politicians and the society at large. Today, people in Europe do not see the need to invite more skilled migrants in the EU zone if the European space already have enough skilled workers and professionals, whose potential and capability are not being utilized or not utilized in full.

Academic mobility of scientists and the “share and win” concept

Studies related to the mobility of scientists, of course, demonstrate a high level of migration of scientific personnel both throughout the world and in Europe. And if we are willing to search for qualified experts in Europe among residents of EU countries, then any country in the world waits for representatives of the academic elite in Europe. According to the European Commission, Europe requires from 700,000 to 1 million qualified researchers, capable of making EU the “most dynamic knowledge-based economic area in the world”. Moreover, Austria, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands are countries with the largest share of foreign experts in Europe. Of all the joint scientific publications in EU countries in 2006, 71.2% were created in collaboration with scientists in the EU and third countries.

In 2005, the monograph “Reproduction of Russian Scientific Elites: the role of foreign scientific foundations” [2] which generalizes the experience of German foundations in Russia and reviews the reasons for the interest of the Russian scientific elite to Germany, was published in Russia. Scientists and experts from Russia named great working conditions, availability of resources, exchange of experience and everything needed to conduct research, as well as good conditions for the integration and adaptation of family members and the scholars themselves (language courses, introductory and familiarization programs, called the dual career program) as among the reasons for interest in research in Germany. Financial reasons and socio-geographical factors were equally important. Lifestyle and responsibility for the remaining family members in Russia predetermine the interest in Germany due to the fact that it is geographically easier to return to Russia to visit friends and relatives from Germany than from the United States.

Undoubtedly, Germany is one of the trendsetters determining the trajectory of change in mobility of scientists and geography of knowledge today. In this connection, let’s concentrate on the German experience of attracting academic specialists in the country.

In order to attract scientists and young research personnel to Germany, a network of foundations, institutions, government offices and nonprofit centers, closely interacting with each other, were created in Germany.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has 65 regional offices around the world, including Moscow, and a budget of €400 million, €85 million of which were allocated to attract foreign young scientists in the country and another €48 million – to advertise German language and culture outside the country. Each year, DAAD awards about 60,000 scholarships, 4,000 scholarships from which go to Russian citizens. In 2011, 26% of the recipients of DAAD scholarships from third countries (outside EU) studied law and economics, 23% studied exact sciences, 18% studied engineering, 19% studied cultural and linguistic studies, 5% studied veterinary business and environment, 5% studied medicine, while 4% studied medicine, sports, music and art.

Max Planck Society (MPG) is an association of 80 institutes and research centers around the world with a total budget of €1.46 billion and about €300 million of additional project financing (as of 2011), which are distributed as follows: 50% go to research in chemistry, physics and technology, 40% – to research in biology and medicine, 10% – to the humanities. Max Planck Society, which sponsored and supported the researches of 32 future Nobel laureates, is the second most-cited institution worldwide after Harvard University according to ESI today.

German Research Foundation (DFG), created in 1920, has seven representative offices abroad and a total budget of €2.3 billion (as of 2010), €506 million of which were used to finance engineering sciences, €345 million– humanities and social sciences, €897 million – biology, earth sciences and medicine, and €552 million – exact sciences and mathematics.

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH), which is financed by 96% by federal funding, has a budget of €101 million (as of 2011). 64% of these funds is expended in support of scientists and specialists in the basic science, 26% – experts in the humanities and social sciences and 10% – scientists engaged in engineering researches.

The German House of Science and Innovation (DWIH) will open its doors in Moscow in 2012. This organization announced its tasks as maintenance of cooperation and development of new partnership projects in the field of economic, scientific and technical cooperation between the two countries. [3]

Despite the mutual interest of both countries and major financial and institutional support for Russian scientists in Germany, the influence and numerical dominance of Russian scientists and specialists in the academia are significantly reducing recently. According to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the German Research Foundation, the number of applications from Russia is decreasing each year, as well as the quality of the applicants themselves.

Thus, of the 40 applications for research positions at German universities in 2007, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation supported 17, in 2008 – 14 out of 53 applications were chosen, while in 2011, only 10 out of 59 applications were successful. According to the scientific achievement program – Forschungspreise – 2 out of 8 Russian applications were approved in 2007, 1 out of 5 applications was approved in 2008, while in 2011, none out of 5 applications was successful. In 2011, 408 Russian researchers received positions in the institutes and research centers of the Max Planck Society – against 529 positions for scientists from the United States, 642 positions for specialists from India, and 783 from China. Hopefully, this is due to the expansion of the activities of the Russian Scientific Foundations (Russian. Humanities Research Foundation/Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research), increase in the share of private funding of R&D, and not a consequence of the decline of the level of knowledge and science in the country as a whole.

Our Life is Like a Fairy Tale…

The situation with the academic mobility of Russian scientists and skilled professionals in the country and abroad is at times reminiscent of the situation of a Russian fairy tale hero, facing a choice: if you go to the left, you lose your horse, to the right – your life, and if you go straight – you will live, but will forget yourself. The attractiveness of the movement of scientists and experts inside and outside Russia’s academic and/or professional environment is associated with serious losses and lack of institutional guarantees after return, which affects the mobility of Russian specialists and often leads to the fact that they are attempting to consolidate and settle in other countries.

There will be no significant changes in the migration trajectories of Russian scientists in the near future because Russia spends about 1.2% of its GDP on R&D, when EU member states and China are spending about 2% of their GDP for this purpose, the United States – about 3%, while Japan holds the world record – 4.5% of GDP. In the field of science and education, 578 international foundations cooperate with national educational institutions of Russia, while 34.3% of them have American roots, 14.7% – UK, 10.1% – German, 5.8% – Japanese and 4.1% are registered in France. All of them are still interested in attracting Russian specialists.

Notwithstanding the above-stated, let us say that quantitative evaluation, as well as attempts to calculate how many, who and to where a person went, what positions are occupied by certain scholars abroad are “topics of the past”. In Europe today, people are talking about a multipolar world map that embodies and reflects the academic and professional mobility of skilled professionals and scientists in the European space, about a new model of “head hunting” cooperation when the “share and win” ideas are becoming dominant, defining the cooperation and collaboration between countries.

In the modern world, science and high professional skills know no bounds, do not recognize nationalities and do not have citizenship. They recognize the value of the acquired knowledge, skills and empowerment. Based on this formulation, no country in the world can lose a scientist or highly qualified specialist, much as another can get it...

1. Schleifer W., Posch W. (Hrsg.) Rechtsfragen der Migration und Integration. Graz, 2008. S. 39.

2. Reproduction of Russian Scientific Elites: the role of foreign scientific foundations / Ed. Chepurenko A.Y., Gohberg L.M., Moscow, 2005. P. 192.

3. The author expresses her gratitude to the representatives of DAAD, DFG, DWIH, AvH and MPG for their assistance in the preparation of these materials.