Subject. Systemic contradictions between the digitalization of the regional economy, the migration of highly qualified specialists, and maintaining economic security in the context of global competition. The impact of digital platforms on the ‘circulation of minds’. Objectives. Identify and organize the key paradoxes of digital inequality, and analyze their impact on regional development and the competitiveness of the national economy. Methods. Methods of systemic, comparative, and logical analysis were used. Results. Five main paradoxes have been identified (infrastructure, educational, spatial, institutional, and platform), which affect the dynamics of interregional and international migration of IT specialists. An original classification of regions by the degree of 'digital vulnerability' is proposed. Conclusions. Resolving the identified paradoxes requires moving towards a 'network human-centered' policy, which should be reflected in the creation of distributed innovation ecosystems and the development of national digital platforms.
Keywords: digital inequality, brain drain, economic security, global economic ties, human capital, regional development, remote work
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