Knowledge Society and High-Skilled Migration. Lights and Shadows of the Italian case in the Time of Crisis

The paper presents some paradoxical aspects within the Italian route towards the Knowledge Society and it proposes a critical analysis of the implementation process of its theoretical background. The case of the increasing number of highly-skilled youths that are leaving Italy in order to seek insertion in more dynamic knowledge-based economies constitutes a special focus and a topical entry-point for the discussion. How economic crisis influenced high-skilled youth emigration? What are the repercussions of these processes on the Italian society, culture, economy and politic? Using secondary-data analysis of national statistics and institutional analysis of the transformations in Academic policy, the paper unveils the process of cumulative influences between national R&D public expenditures cuts, University reforms, transformation of knowledge-based labour market and new flows of young high-skilled emigrations. Against the backdrop of this discussion of the controversial aspects of the Italian case, the paper proposes some possible general strategies to overcome the paradoxes of the Knowledge Society in the actuality of the Southern European countries.