Attracting and retraining talent: lessons for Scottish policy makers from the experiences of scottish expatriates in Dublin

With a view to contributing research of value to the Fresh Talent Scotland Initiative, this research project has been devised with specific reference to the first of the three goals noted above. Specifically, it is concerned with gaining insights into why talented individuals leave Scotland in the first instance, and thereafter to ascertain whether anything might be done to both stem the outflow and lure back to Scotland some of its most talented diasporeans. Such a goal in turn begets, it will be argued, greater insights into the actual experiences of contemporary diasporeans in the run up to migration and whilst in exile. Using one emerging magnet for Scottish expatriates as a case study, the Republic of Ireland and more specifically Dublin, the project seeks to examine the embroilment of skilled Scottish expatriates in the so called Celtic Tiger phenomenon. The basic purpose of this report is to present insights into the decision making processes that have led migrants to leave Scotland and to move to Dublin, to gain an appreciation of what life has been like for expatriates living in Dublin and what Scotland might learn from these experiences, and finally to review future locational preferences with a view to establishing whether a return to Scotland may be a possibility.