Abstract
Global careers and highly skilled expatriates employing their talent in diverse contexts of the world tend to be conceptualized as “male”, and recognized diplomas represent employability. Despite the increasing feminization of migration, highly skilled female migrants and their contributions to economies through careers or entrepreneurship remain overlooked. Many obstacles impede the full employment of their talents. We review extant literature and argue that female migrant talent merits more detailed conceptual attention. By analysing interview data from 2010 to 2019 in two advanced European countries, we found that female migrants suffer from brain waste in multiple ways, partly due to external institutional aspects and discrimination and partly due to inherent internalized practices and sociocultural norms. We call for greater intersectionality and interdisciplinarity in examining equality to advance female economic participation. Private and public sectors may improve female talent perception, integration and employment by developing specific responses to the problems identified.