Regarding your cover story on "Migrating Minds,"1 it is true; very often, the pre- and postdocs would buy only a one-way ticket to the United States. Why is it so?
My personal opinion is that the European laws and immigration regulations imposed on universities are very restrictive, in a sense. This is not the question of money only to attract outside-EU scientists—it is a question of prospects and social stability that are offered not only to the candidate for a specific job, but also to his/her family.
My impression is that these restrictions are mainly related to the fact that the university bodies in Europe are requested to prove to immigration authorities first that no EU-citizen exists to compete for the advertised academic position and just, thereafter, the university bodies could hire the candidate that is not an EU-citizen. In other words, they need to prove not...
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