Feminist Perspectives on the Brain Drain and Social Reproduction in Transition Economies: Romania's Highly Skilled Post-Communist Migration to Canada

Starting with the 1990s, economies worldwide entered a knowledge-based phase of growth as part of the neoliberal project of development. In order to absorb the best well-trained workforce internationally, Canada re-organized its immigration programs. One of the products of this re-organization was a prioritization, enlargement and increased focus placed on the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP). In my dissertation, I examine the effects and outcomes of the movement of highly skilled individuals on their origin developing and transition countries - Romania, in this case. Insofar as contextualizing Romanias post-communist transition to a capitalist market, the thesis contributes to the understanding of the transnational dimensions of social reproduction through Romanian mothers investment in the migration of their children to Canada, as well as the gendered foundations of certain Canadian immigration policies that make such movements possible. While the existing feminist literature on social reproduction has not made visible enough how womens paid and unpaid work in transition states enables the migration of young people, the brain-drain migration scholarship misses out completely the social reproductive work from developing countries that makes such movements possible. By analyzing Canadas Federal Skilled Worker (FSWP) immigration program and Romanian mothers investment in the migration of their children to Canada (mobility enabled by such programs), my aim is to fill in such gaps in the current literature, in an attempt to expand both the brain-drain migration and social-reproduction literature. In asking these questions, I hope to bring forward arguments about how Canadian neoliberal projects of growth and development are indirectly subsidized by Romanian womens work, and how the overall processes accentuate and intensify inequalities in different parts of the world.