The regional dimension in the global competition for talent: Lessons from framing the European Scientific Visa and Blue Card

To examine the role of regional co-operation in the global race for top foreign talent, we study how the Lisbon Strategy's implementation contributed to these efforts. Specifically, we analyse the Scientific Visa and the Blue Card, two European Union (EU) legislations for attracting the best and brightest' from abroad. Official figures tell us that the number of highly skilled migrants recruited so far is low and, following an inductive logic, we parse out the value-added' of regional collaboration beyond legislative co-ordination. Taking as our departure point Borras and Radaelli's (2011) concept of the Lisbon Strategy as governance architecture', we apply the framing approach to show how the Scientific Visa and Blue Card framed labour migration differently: as initiatives for mobile excellence' and border management' respectively. Our findings reveal that they contributed to the Lisbon Strategy's evolution as a process of conversion' and point to the value-added' of regional co-operation as a sense-making' exercise.