’ s repository of research publications and other research outputs Flows and cohesion : balancing capabilities across

The recent expansion of the European Union has raised issues of equity in regional development across established and new member countries and concerns about population movement that led to last minute restrictions on labour mobility being imposed in 2004. The Lisbon agenda emphasises the importance of cohesion, yet its ultimate objective, set against competition across a global knowledge-based economy, implies strategies which build on existing nodes of strength and critical mass to expand high level technical and economic activity. Such strategies are likely to exacerbate the flows of skilled labour, followed by less skilled workers responding to elevated local demands for more general service support. The situation reflects the so-called north-south divide through which regions and nations are losing their most capable workers to more developed locations. Movement within the expanded European Union is influenced by historic patterns and links suppressed during the Cold War period and now re-appearing. The connections created by this movement offer a means of both transfer and linkage between more and less advanced locations. Until recently such transfers of skilled workers were seen as a ‘brain drain’, implying a one-way, definitive and permanent loss of skilled labour. Current thinking on international migration suggests that migration can play a critical role in aiding poverty alleviation by contributing to development thinking and resource mobilisation. The notion of 1 Presented at RSA International Conference on Shaping EU Regional Policy: Economic Social and Political Pressures: Theme 7: Competitiveness and Cohesion Leuven, June 2006 2 http://www.eumap.org/journal/features/2004/migration 3 http://www.euractiv.com/en/agenda2004/lisbon-agenda/article-117510