Emigration after EU Enlargement : Was There a Brain Drain Effect in the Case of Estonia?

The study analyzes changes in emigration from Estonia in order to shed more light on East-West migration, contributing to the main debate on “brain drain” by focusing on educational differences in emigration. We use anonymous individual level data for all emigrants from the register-based Estonian Emigration Database compiled by Statistics Estonia for the period 2000-2008. The analysis shows that there has been no significant brain drain from Estonia as a new EU member state during this period. Moreover, we find evidence of a spreading of the emigration norm into a wider range of population groups, including the less educated, since Estonia joined the European Union in 2004