Is Italy losing its best-trained young people, or attracting a new generation of talent from abroad? Recent migration figures point to both realities at once. They challenge the idea that Italy is facing only a one-way “brain drain,” but they do not erase the difficulty of retaining graduates educated in the country.
Between 2019 and 2024, slightly more than 78,000 Italian citizens ages 25–34 with a college degree moved abroad. During the same five-year period, nearly 88,000 foreign graduates in the same age group moved to Italy. On a strictly numerical basis, the balance was positive: Italy gained 9,593 young graduates.
