<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Europe is home to a globally unique area where the barriers of transnational migration have been largely removed. This article focuses on Finnish highly skilled, intra-European migrants and their labour market situation immediately following the economic crisis of 2008. Based on two consecutive online surveys (carried out in spring 2008 and summer 2010) of tertiary educated Finns living in other EU countries, the article examines the effects of the global economic downturn on the careers of these highly skilled migrants. Only 16 per cent of the respondents report that their labour market situation had worsened. A higher percentage (24%) felt that their situation had improved and the majority (54%) had either experienced no change in their situation or stated that their reasons for changing jobs or moving had nothing to do with the crisis. The article concludes that these migrants were protected from the full force of the crisis by their high human capital, flexibility of alternating between studying and work, employment in international workplaces and their intra-European migrant status.</p></abstract>

Europe is home to a globally unique area where the barriers of transnational migration have been largely removed. This article focuses on Finnish highly skilled, intra-European migrants and their labour market situation immediately following the economic crisis of 2008. Based on two consecutive online surveys (carried out in spring 2008 and summer 2010) of tertiary educated Finns living in other EU countries, the article examines the effects of the global economic downturn on the careers of these highly skilled migrants. Only 16 per cent of the respondents report that their labour market situation had worsened. A higher percentage (24%) felt that their situation had improved and the majority (54%) had either experienced no change in their situation or stated that their reasons for changing jobs or moving had nothing to do with the crisis. The article concludes that these migrants were protected from the full force of the crisis by their high human capital, flexibility of alternating between studying and work, employment in international workplaces and their intra-European migrant status.

Finnish Highly Skilled Migrants and the European Economic Crisis

TalTech Journal of European Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Finnish Highly Skilled Migrants and the European Economic Crisis"}

Europe is home to a globally unique area where the barriers of transnational migration have been largely removed. This article focuses on Finnish highly...

Finnish Highly Skilled Migrants and the European Economic Crisis

Published Online: Nov 10, 2017

Page range: 168 - 181

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/bjes-2017-0015

Keywords
economic crisis, European Union, free movement, highly skilled migration, intra-European migration, labour markets

© 2017 Saara Koikkalainen, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Finnish Highly Skilled Migrants and the European Economic Crisis

Published Online: Nov 10, 2017

Page range: 168 - 181

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/bjes-2017-0015

Keywordseconomic crisis, European Union, free movement, highly skilled migration, intra-European migration, labour markets

© 2017 Saara Koikkalainen, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
economic crisis, European Union, free movement, highly skilled migration, intra-European migration, labour markets