When I was 21, back in the mid-1990s, I remember going to a farewell party for a young woman who was leaving Italy to work toward a Ph.D. in Canada. After a few years of struggling with the nepotism and lack of opportunities in Italian academia, she professed her wish to never come back to Italy “except for holidays.” That was the first time I witnessed a case of Italian brain drain.

Italian emigration back then was mainly associated with the flight of researchers, scientists and other highly skilled professionals attracted by the chance for better careers abroad.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/