16 December 2025
Bilbao Campus San Sebastian Campus
More than 85% of young talent from the Basque Country and Navarre who are working outside their home region are considering returning to their place of origin for their professional development, which would mean the recovery of around 35,700 highly qualified professional profiles for these autonomous communities. These findings are set out in a report on young people from the Basque Country and Navarre in the diaspora, produced by Artizarra Fundazioa, a non-profit organisation that brings together Basque and Navarrese professionals and business leaders committed to the sustainable development of the region, and Deusto Business School (DBS).
The aim of this assessment is to understand the reasons for their departure, the conditions for their return and, moreover, to promote tools and the design of active policies and social initiatives that encourage and facilitate the return of this young talent, as explained by Jon Ander de las Fuentes, a member of Artizarra, and Guillermo Dorronsoro, a professor at Deusto Business School.
At present, around 30,000 young people from the Basque Country and 12,000 from Navarre, aged between 25 and 40, are working outside their home region. This is a large and diverse young diaspora with a strong component of highly qualified human capital, holding undergraduate degrees and, in particular, master’s and doctoral qualifications, concentrated in engineering, business management and STEM fields. Their stay abroad is long-term, with 60% having been away from their place of origin for more than six years. The main reasons for leaving are employment and professional development, alongside the pursuit of better salaries and career prospects. Meanwhile, the main obstacles to returning are the lack of job opportunities and interesting projects, limited professional recognition, and difficulties accessing housing in these regions, according to the report.
In response to the risks of depopulation, ageing and the loss of human capital, various European countries and regions have introduced active policies to attract talent, combining tax incentives, employment opportunities, housing provision and integration programmes. The Basque Country and Navarre are competing in this context and need to establish urgent measures to curb the emigration of young talent and create conditions for their return, as well as to strengthen an active, connected diaspora committed to the region In this regard, beyond the assessment, the report by Artizarra and Deusto Business School aims to identify opportunities, strengthen ties and lay the foundations for recovering this investment in talent.
Jon Ander de las Fuentes stated that “at Artizarra we firmly believe that rootedness is a competitive advantage for any region, and for us it is built on three pillars: business, capital and talent. For this reason, we consider it essential to work on retaining talent, as well as recovering that which is part of the Basque and Navarrese diaspora.”
Guillermo Dorronsoro, in turn, stated that “there is no investment more worthwhile for the Basque Country and Navarre than that dedicated to creating the conditions that allow the return of our diaspora, or at least to maintaining ties with these individuals. This is a task that must be led by our institutions and shared by businesses and civil society. This initiative by Artizarra is, without doubt, timely and necessary: it is essential to understand the group in order to design effective measures”.
