Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The specific objectives of the project were: to explore the scale, motivations, skills and lifetime mobility of different types of skilled labour mobility to the UK from Slovakia; to evaluate the 'total' human capital acquired by individuals participating in different types of skilled labour mobility; to evaluate the direct economic implications for sending and receiving countries of different types of skilled labour mobility: what are the direct gains/losses in terms of skills, the social costs of the development of skills, production and taxation; to analyse longer term economic implications by exploring the employment, capital transfers, and future mobility plans of returnees; to assess the economic use made of the broader human capital (language, cultural knowledge, etc.) acquired through working abroad. Given the lack of reliable official data on Slovakian migration to the UK, it was not possible to obtain a representative sample of returnees. Instead, the emphasis of the research was on differences between the three groups of migrants, and their individual experiences. The findings of the project make a contribution to the deconstruction of human capital as a concept in migration studies, and to understanding the economic impacts of new forms of European mobility.
Main Topics:
The data files contain coded data resulting from in-depth interviews with 186 returned skilled migrants from the UK to Slovakia: 64 had been professional and managerial workers in the UK, 55 had been students, and 67 had been au pairs. The interviews covered a range of issues relating to mobility histories, motivations, knowledge acquisition and transfer, further educational training, use of savings, employment experiences, and future migration intentions. Interviews were based around a highly structured schedule, with scope for elaboration. Only the answers given to the highly structured sections of the interviews are included here for confidentiality reasons. Three data files are included in the dataset, representing each of the three sub-groups. There are approximately 105 variables in each dataset, although there are very minor differences between these.They cover motivations, attitudes, experiences, and impacts, particularly in terms of occupations, knowledge, and different forms of human capital. The questionnaire can be directly related by question number (and sub-numbers) to the variables in the data files.
Purposive selection/case studies
given the lack of reliable official data on Slovakian migration to the UK, it was not possible to obtain a representative sample of returnees. Instead, the sampling was purposive, based on using intermediary organizations as starting points, followed up by snowballing techniques. Only highly skilled migrants who had spent at least three months in the UK, and had returned to Slovakia at least six months prior to the date of the interview, were included in the sample.
Face-to-face interview
Telephone interview
telephone interviews were used in a small number of cases where the respondents lived in remote areas or refused face-to-face contacts.
