THE HIGHLY EDUCATED MIGRATORY BIRDS OF TURKEY

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the sense of brain drain for overseas-trained YLSY scholars who renounced their scholarship settling abroad and the pushing-pulling factors in this decision. The research was conveyed in the phenomenological design and interviews with 3 female and 7 male YLSY scholars from the U.S., the U.K, Canada and Germany were conducted via snowball sampling. The interview questions prepaid were examined by three field experts. One-to-one online semi-structured interviews taking an average of 40-50 minutes were made over Zoom. The data was analyzed employing content analysis and four themes were reached as journey to opportunities, coefficient repellents and incentives, an effort not to lose what is achieved and suggestions to policy makers. The participants defined brain drain as a long journey that led to opportunities, and social reasons as well as academic reasons were dominant in this migration.