ABSTRACT
Towards the end of the twentieth century, there was a significant increase in the number of asylum seekers and refugees coming to the West from Central, South-East and Eastern Europe. This chapter addresses three issues: provide some information about the extent to which brain drain has affected most countries in Central, South-East and Eastern Europe, especially Albania, Bulgaria and Romania; identifies some of the reasons why 'brain drain' has turned into an as yet not fully acknowledged 'brain waste'; and explores some of the causes – historical, cultural, political, economic and media-related – behind the alleged discrimination against foreign scholars in Western academia. If one believes the British tabloids, the United Kingdom is in imminent danger of being swamped with refugees and asylum seekers. The unregulated immigration policy in the UK is one of the reasons why a considerable number of foreigners arriving here are uneducated or unskilled.
