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.