A French Report on Their Expat Scientists in the US May be a Cautionary Tale for Australia. (November 15, 2010)

A 148 page report just released by the French think tank Institut Montaigne, Gone for Good ? Partis pour de bon ? Les expatriés de l’enseignement supérieur français aux États-Uni (French Higher Education Expatriates in the United States), notes that from 1971-1980 researchers represented 8% of French Expats in the US while from 1996 - 2006 the percentage had risen to 27%. A 2007 analysis found that 40% of the best French biology and economics researchers were resident in the United states.

From 1985 through 2008, 2745 French students undertook doctoral degrees in America -- 70% remained in the United states.

As the study by Institut Montaigne puts it, the brain drain from France to the United States although small in numbers, constitutes the best researchers who are seduced by America, and it is not only the higher salaries, but also better working conditions, fairer recruitment, a competitive spirit, and the ability to devote more time to research and less to teaching that are significant considerations.

However, on the down side the author of the report, Ioanna Kohler, policy programs director at the French-American Foundation in New York, cites greater pressure to produce, having to spend more time raising funds, an "Americano-centrism" in the scientific culture and, for women, the reduction of a family life.