MIGRATION OF SPORTS-RELATED PROFESSIONAL WORKFORCE. ANALYSING THE CAUSES OF THE PHENOMENON

Migration has been a multidimensional phenomenon, strongly impacting numerous fields of activity in the structure of societies. It is a challenge for the governments of all states, but also a topic to be addressed by specialists of various areas of expertise. This topic must be constantly approached and updated, particularly nowadays when the dynamics of modern societies and the ever–changing labour market generate new economic and social realities. The research endeavours conducted over time haverevealed various aspects: from the causes and types of migration, the pull factors or, on the contrary, push factors, to the economic and social effects of migration. Moreover, brain drain, a relevant concern of the governments of many states, has led to numerous debates and opposing perspectives among researchers and stakeholders in various countries. We witness brain drain in sports area as well, where this phenomenon displays certain particularities which will be further addressed in this research.The core objective of this paper is to identify the causes and effects of the migration of sports–related professionals as well as the potential steps to create a more appealing domestic work environment in order to foster workforce retention. There are also some ancillary objectives correlated with the aforementioned one, such as introducing the fundamental elements of certain representative theories belonging to various paradigms on migration and brain drain, as well as demonstrating the need torethink the meaning of brain drain collocation in that it must be updated or even replaced with other collocations. Research methodology derives precisely from the paper objectives: in order to meet the objectives set, we refer to qualitative research to interpret the data collected from specialist literature reviews and from some semi-structured interviews with Romanian coaches working abroad. To sum up, studying migration must be a constant concern for all governments and should help strengthen the public development strategies without infringing upon the individual rights and freedoms set forth by international treaties.