According to OECD data, the number of international migrants increased from the 90s to 2015 by about 90 million people (+58%) and permanent migrations from the rest of the world to OECD countries in 2016 exceeded the peak of pre-crisis years with 5 million foreign immigrants. The protagonists of these movements are above all well-educated young people: in 2015 one out of four migrants in the G20 area had a high level of education.
The applications on the European professional mobility portal (Eures) see Italians looking for a job at the top of the rankings, followed by the Spanish, Romanians and Portuguese. The jobseekers' favorite destinations are in order: United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. According to Eurostat data, in 2016 the EU countries with the highest share of highly skilled immigrants aged between 30 and 34 were Denmark (59,8%), Ireland (58,4%) and the United Kingdom (54,7. 22,4%), on the contrary, Spain, Italy and Greece occupy the last positions, hosting respectively only 13,4%, 12,3% and XNUMX% of young foreign graduates.
Italy in recent years has been characterized by a growing net outflow: according to Istat data, in 2016 for every three residents who left the country (114.512) only one returned (37.894) for a total negative balance of 76.618 units. The number of Italians who leave the country reaches around 285 a year, slightly less than that which characterized the post-war period (300 a year).
Even in the case of Italy, it is above all well-educated young people who migrate. In 2002 the share of graduates aged over 25 going abroad was only 11,9%, while in 2013 it reached 30% and in 2016 the so-called "brain drain" numbered around 34 thousand. The 2017 Almalaurea report on the employment profile of graduates shows that out of 262.347 students who obtained their qualification in 2015, one year after graduation, 12.068 have jobs abroad (4,6%) and of the remainder, most have found a job in Northern Italy (53%), 21% in the Center and only 14,7% in the South.
