Executive Summary

In 2005-2006, the ERICarts Institute carried out a pilot research project on transborder mobility in the European arts and culture (MEAC)[1]. The project was financed by the LabforCulture and the purpose was to map the main current policy problems and to design a research plan for a more extensive comparative European study.

The MEAC pilot project was steered by a scientific committee and its results are reported on by Ilkka Heiskanen, Andreas Wiesand and Danielle Cliche; making up the core responsible team within the ERICarts Institute. The core team also co-ordinated the study, collected basic information and statistics on artists' mobility, contracted eight case studies and organised one round table and three brain-storm meetings with the MEAC scientific committee made up of Lluís Bonet, Ritva Mitchell, Luca dal Pozzolo and Veronika Ratzenböck.

In this pilot project, comparative statistics and case studies were used to map the current European policy problems. Empirical research focused mainly on the crises-induced flows of artists from the ex-Socialist Eastern and South-Eastern Europe to the "West" and on the entry barriers and career restraints they have encountered in the receiving countries. In addition to immigration bureaucracies, the mobility of artists was seen to be pestered in the labour market and in arts administration by such idiosyncrasies as regulations on recognition of formal qualifications, work permits and exclusion of immigrant artists from national social security systems. Other problems identified included labour contracts, taxation and trans-border payment of royalties and other copyright compensations.

Several national case studies provided comparative data on student exchange and on the numbers of foreign students in arts universities. A distinct change seemed to have happened in the latter half of the 1990s. The flows of students from outside the EU, especially from P.R. China and from the countries of South-East Asia have increased exponentially and foreign candidates seem to succeed better than native ones in entrance exams of top European art schools and universities, particularly as concerns music.

The results of the case studies were used to develop typologies of the motives, strategies and consequences of artists' mobility and entry restrictions and career restraints of mobile artists in their receiving countries. An Italian case study further raised an important issue: the contribution of immigrant communities to the diversity of European arts and culture. The results of the study underlined the role of intellectual leadership in these communities in maintaining their unique identity and their capacity to contribute to the vitality of the mainstream culture of their new home country.

The conceptual analyses of the pilot phase focused mainly on clarifying the phenomena of brain drain, brain gain and brain circulation and classifying their potential causes. The results indicated that there is a need to assess these drains, gains and circulations not only in economic terms (like wins and losses in educational costs), but also in two further respects: first, in terms of their impacts on creativity and the accumulation of intangible assets; and, secondly, in terms of the competitive edge of European culture industries, especially vis-à-vis the world-wide American dominance in the audiovisual sectors. Information provided by recent research studies and other activities, such as the UNESCO study on the flows of core cultural products and services[2] and the study of European mobility initiatives[3] were of great benefit in this respect.

The pilot study concludes with suggestions for future action, namely to:

• Systematically map and analyse the practice and causes of trans-national mobility in Europe among art students, artists and other arts-related professionals, e.g. intermediators or "gatekeepers", paying special attention to the changing directions of the mobility flows and assessing the progress and setbacks of intra-European and, increasingly, global movements.
• Build upon the collection of cases studies and the results of research conferences in order to better illustrate the consequences of mobility on artistic careers, including those of migrants belonging to diaspora communities; on strategies and investments in sending or receiving countries; and on nomadic or virtual brain circulation.
• Expand the research both analytically and empirically in such a manner that makes it possible to assess the impacts of trans-national flow of cultural goods and artistic ideas not only in terms of short-term economic effects and effects on cultural diversity, but also on a) the growth of the European stock of arts-generated "intangible assets" and on b) the competitive edge of European culture industries in the global trade arena.

[1]This report has been prepared by Ilkka Heiskanen, ERICarts Institute, in cooperation with Ritva Mitchell, Andreas Wiesand and Danielle Cliche. The project was branded as "MEAC", an acronym, which stands for "Dynamics, Causes and Consequences of the Transborder Mobility in the European Arts and Culture".

[2]UNESCO Institute for Statistics: International Flow of Selected Cultural Goods and Services, 1994-2003. UNESCO, Sector for Culture, 2005.

[3]E.g. the Mobility Programme of the European Cultural Foundation, Amsterdam or "On the Move" of IETM, Brussels.