"Return to Lithuania" experiences of young Lithuanians who graduated abroad

Tarptautinis ir transnacionalinis mobilumas tampa globalia jaunų žmonių karjeros strategija. Šios tendencijos neaplenkia ir Lietuvos, tačiau pasigendama tyrimų, kuriuose būtų nagrinėjami kultūriškai privilegijuotų ir mobilių asmenų integracijos gimtosios šalies darbo rinkoje mechanizmai ir procesai, leidžiantys mobiliems asmenims padidinti savo vertę gimtosios šalies darbo rinkoje ir būti inovacijų kūrimo ar perkėlimo iniciatoriais. Siekiant bent šiek tiek užpildyti šį akademinį mobilumo/migracijos tyrimų vakuumą straipsnyje analizuojamos bakalauro ir magistro studijas užsienyje baigusių Lietuvos piliečių „sugrįžimo į Lietuvą“ patirtys. Pagrindinis tyrimo klausimas – kaip mobilumas ir migracijos patirtis padeda įgyti žmogiškąjį, socialinį ir kultūrinį kapitalą ir kaip kitose valstybėse suformuoto „parsivežtų identitetų“ susidūrimas su „vietiniais“ lemia naujovės kūrimą.International and transnational mobility is becoming a global career strategy for many young Lithuanian students. However, there is a lack of studies that have investigated the return paths of these culturally privileged mobile persons (students) and their integration into the home labour market, as well as mechanisms and processes that allow these people to transfer their knowledge to the local institutional environment. In order to fill at least some of this mobility/migration research gap, this article analyses the experience of 'return to Lithuania' of 15 undergraduate and graduate students (Lithuanian citizens) who found jobs in public institutions (mainly ministries and government agencies in the capital city, Vilnius) after they had spent at least one full-time (undergraduate or graduate) study cycle in one or more economically developed Western countries (Sweden, Denmark, the US and UK, Belgium, Australia and the Netherlands). The research focuses on how the mobility/migration experience helps to develop their human, social and cultural capital, and how their identities formed abroad are 'brought back' to the home country, and how identity clashes with the 'local others' lead to some sort of innovation. In this article, innovation is defined as something new or visibly improved, and this may be new only in the context of an individual company, but not necessarily new in the entire sector or market (Orfila-Sintes, Mattsson 2009). The arficle consists of three parts. The first part is focused on an analysis of intemational student mobility/migration studies; while in the second, mobile workers/migrants' role in the innovation process is theoretically conceptualised; finally, in the last two parts the empirical research results and conclusive remarks are presented. The empirical research reveals that the educational mobility of young Lithuanian students is a very complex phenomenon. Their mobility is based on communication and culture, but not necessarily territorial attachment (Now I work in Vilnius, but soon I may go to India). The informants talk about their global lifestyle, a cosmopolitan world without borders, thus their departure to study abroad cannot be termed 'emigration' in the classic sense of the concept. Their mobility and return are rather repetitive, but by no means exhaustive or a final phenomenon. The return to Lithuania by some students was clearly of an innovative character, i.e. these returnees were challenging the existing ways of doing and thirvking, especially in the working environment. However, the paternalistic management style pervasive throughout public sector organisations had a 'braking' effect on innovative knowledge and behaviour (Western work ethic) transmissions. What is more, the returnees in many cases were not able to employ their high qualifications and highly developed social competences due to the public sector's 'immunity' to knowledge and innovation, despite the fact that a 'good' foreign university diploma gave the informants more 'life chances' in the Lithuanian labour market. What is more, the competitive advantage of informants in the labour market was predetermined mainly by two key factors. The first 'internal' factor was the tacit knowledge and developed social competencies that determined the successful performance of the returnees at work. The second, but by no means the least important, was the fact that a foreign university diploma in Lithuania, as a country where social inequality is high, has acquired the status of a rare, expensive and desirable 'good' in the Lithuanian labour market, and was rather overestimated by employers. [...