EU INSTITUTIONS ON THE MIGRATION OF HIGHLY EDUCATED CITIZENS IN A COMMON MARKET - A qualitative idea analysis of the ideas of the Committee of the Regions and the Commission in the issue of the migration of highly educated citizens

Abstract

For the EU to work, all different member-states need to benefit in some way from the cooperation. The migration of highly educated citizens is an example of a complex economic and political science problem since some member-states benefit from the migration while other member-states do not. The aim of this thesis is to create a better understanding of how EU institutions presents the issue of the migration of highly educated citizens from some member states and regions as a consequence of the single market integration, and which solutions they present to mediate the negative effects. A comparative idea analysis was conducted on material discussing the migration of highly educated citizens from the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the Commission, to show how the ideas and solutions differed between the institutions. The results show that the CoR viewed the migration as largely negative in the form of brain drain which can be solved through solutions on regional, national, and European levels, especially through the cohesion policy and cohesion funds. The Commission discussed the migration of highly educated citizens as both positive and negative, with solutions lying mostly on a national level through incentives to create a brain circulation. This difference in ideas can be explained through the theory of liberal intergovernmentalism, which views the Commission as being more influenced by the stronger member states than the CoR which is on a different bargaining level and, therefore, more influenced by smaller actors.