Introduction
The term brain drain appears to have gained wide usage in the
late1960s when growth in the migration of skilled personnel from
developingto developed countries accelerated.1 The developed
countries, by attractingscarce skilled labor, were widely held to
be pursuing policies that werecostly to developing countries, both
in the short and longer run. The costswere not only in terms of
output and employment, but alsodepending onthe way in which
education was financedthrough additional fiscal costsassociated
with public subsidies to education. A variety of policy
proposals,mostly centered around taxation, were floated, although
none were ultimatelyimplemented. Part of this may be attributed to
likely difficultieswith implementationmeasurement problems
(including temporary migrationand migration linked to education
enrolment in developed countries)and ambiguities with respect to
the welfare consequences.Many of the same issues and debates have
undergone a recent revival.This can be attributed to a number of
factors. In the first place, it is commonlybelieved that the
emigration of skilled labor from developing countrieshas again
accelerated over the last decade, not least in association withthe
growth-of-information and knowledge-intensive activities. Second,
thedeveloped economies have actively and openly set out to poach
talent, usinga range of incentives and institutional mechanisms for
attracting skilledlabor. In particular, the use of temporary
skilled-migrant visas whether inthe United States or, more
recently, in Western Europe, has been striking.Possible
explanations for why poaching has increased are various.
Theyinclude skill shortages resulting from rapid skill-biased
technical change aswell as educational failures. Gaining access to
international competenceheterogeneitymay be another factor, while
access to technical or marketknowledge may be another. The first
explanation generally is taken as bringingin substitutes to local
human capital, although this need not necessarilybe the case. The
importing firm would gain through lowering wage costs,dampening any
domestic-wage pressure, or both. The other explanations,however,
may be consistent with complementarity (at least in static or
shortrunterms). By widening the talent pool, poaching may result in
the selectionof the best candidates and hence impart a positive
productivity effect.At the same time, there has been growing
recognition not only of theglobal benefits of greater mobility, but
also that the emigration of skilledlabor may not be negative for
the sending country. In the first place, emigrationof talent may
provide a positive signal that motivates others in thesending
country to acquire more education, thereby raising human capitaland
possibly promoting growth. Second, emigrants may, in due course,
returnor, through networks and resource repatriation (such as
through remittances),provide essential inputs to new businesses and
activities in thesending country. Third, emigration may actively
promote a more effectiveflow of knowledge and information. Fourth,
the changing nature of mobilityin part due to major advances in
communications technologymaybe limiting the extent to which skills
are actually lost. A network industry,like software, is possibly a
case in point.This paper has several objectives. First it attempts
to take stock of ourknowledge concerning the scale, composition,
and direction of migrationfrom developing to developed countries in
the recent period. Second, itplaces that mobility in the context of
the existing literature, and, third, itattempts to indicate ways in
which, at both an analytical and empiricallevel, progress can be
made in better understanding the phenomenon and,in particular, the
appropriate policy implications.The paper is organized as follows.
Section 7.2 provides a brief empiricalsurvey of our knowledge
concerning the scale, distribution, and compositionof skilled labor
flows. Section 7.3 surveys a class of models developedin the 1970s
that focused primarily on the implications of emigration for
labormarkets in the sending countries. Section 7.4 surveys the
subsequentclass of dynamic models in particular, those that
endogenize human-236 Simon Commander, Mari Kangasniemi, and L. Alan
Winterscapital decisions. We extend the analysis to take account of
possiblescreening by developed countries. Section 7.5 then examines
the empiricalevidence for screening, while section 7.6 looks at the
relevance of returnflows, remittances, and diasporasfactors that
may offset some of thenegative effects associated with skilled
migration. Section 7.7 then turns toexamining the relevance of
economic geography models for understandingthe brain drain and not
least the reasons for why agglomeration occurs.Section 7.8 then
moves on to look in a little bit more detail at two sectorssoftware
and healththat have features that may be helpful in
understandingsectoral differences. Section 7.9 concludes.
The Facts
Quantification of the movement of skilled individuals across
countrieslet alone the exact measurement of any associated brain
drainremains very patchy. National authorities have maintained very
limiteddatabases on migration with highly inconsistent skill or
education categories.2 There is a lack of data on the attributes of
the individual migrantsand the changing nature of migrationwhich is
away from permanent,point-to-point migrationhas itself complicated
matters. Furthermore,the link between education and migration has
changed over time. For example,a significant component of skilled
migration is now accounted forby students that stay on after
completion of degrees.
Skilled Migration in The Recent Period
Carrington and Detragiache (1998) provide a benchmark for
skilled migrationin 1990. They compiled the U.S. census and the
Organization forEconomic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
migration statistics forthat year and then compared the immigrant
stocks to the size of the educatedpopulation in the sending country
using Barro and Lees (1996) educationdata for 1993. Their study has
several shortcomings: In addition to possibledeficiencies of the
basic data they use,3 their figures fail to take into
accountskilled migration to the Middle East, which for countries
like India actuallyaccounts for a large proportion of the total
migration. Also, the immigrationto the United States in their study
includes all types of migration, not onlyemployment based, which is
what is usually understood by brain drain.Despite their
shortcomings, the Carrington and Detragiache estimatesare probably
the best available estimates of brain drain. We use them toThe
Brain Drain: Curse or Boon? A Survey of the Literature study the
relationships between population, the gross domestic product(GDP),
and migration. Table 7.1 provides information on population,
onexpenditure on tertiary education, and a measure of the intensity
of migration(i.e., the share of a countrys labor force having
tertiary educationthat has migrated). The share presented in the
table is based on the assumptionthat the Barro and Lee estimates do
not include the migrants.What emerges is that there are a
significant number of small countriesprincipally in the Caribbean,
Central America, and Africawith veryhigh skilled-migration rates.
Similar exercises comparing skilled-migration rates and GDP per
capitaalso yield negative correlations. Countries where the
fraction of highly educatedworkers and general productivity (GDP
per capita) is already lowalso tend to lose relatively more skilled
workers. Of course, this raises somedifficult issues of
interpretation. For instance, if the productivity of skilledlabor
in these countries is low because of factorssuch as lack of
managerialtalent (Rauch 1991) and inability to achieve economies of
scale thatare hard, if not impossible to correctthen the emigration
of skilled labormay indeed be the best outcome. We return to these
questions below.What has happened since 1990? The general consensus
appears to bethat skilled migration has accelerated, yet the data
are limited mainly tocensus and labor-force surveys. Salt (1997)
has arrived at some estimatesfor high skilled-migrant flows to
selected OECD countries from a numberof developing and transition
countries. He draws a number of (weak) inferencesto the effect that
the stocks of highly skilled foreign workers inOECD countries have
increased since 1990. Certainly, the flows of thehighly skilled
have been increasing at a higher rate than those of
less-skilledmigrants. With respect to the European Union as a
whole, labor-forcesurveydata show that highly skilled migrants
(International Standard ofClassification of Occupations [ISCO]
categories 13)4 in 1997 accountedAn Overview of Brain Drain in the
WorldRao (1979) asserts that the history of cross-national diaporas
of scholars andresearchers can be traced back to the times when
academics migrated to the Lyceum in355 B.C. and to Athens in 388
B.C. Around 300 B.C. Alexandria, where most of the bestwork on
science and philosophy was carried out between 300 B.C. and 500
A.D., becamethe first centre of science, philosophy and arts
(Dedijer, 1968). Soon after 500 A.D. thiscentre of teaching and
learning was shifted to Gundi Sapur in East Persia, where theGreek
King Hursa Anusirwan established a university and gathered
scholars, physicians,and scientists from many parts of the world,
but mainly from Christian countries. Duringthe middle-ages,
cross-border mobility of scholars, teachers and artists was common
toEuropean universities, especially to people from Italy, France,
Britain and Austria. Thedirect causes for this cross-national
mobility were said to be the economic, political,social issues and
intellectual demands for knowledge in natural and physical sciences
andhumanities (Rao, 1979).According to Thomas (1968), in the
nineteenth century, there was a great flow ofhuman capital from
Europe to the New World4 in terms of exporting physical
andunskilled labour, and this flow helped create an infrastructure
in the New World whichhad to send their people to European
countries to receive further training at a later stage.As a result,
both the sending and receiving countries could enjoy economic
benefits.After World War II, developing countries began to build
sustainable physicalinfrastructure, but they were short of
technical and professional personnel in keyscientific,
administrative and research positions (Rao, 1979). The flow of
expertise wasthen characterized as a North - South, developing
developed direction (Carrington,Detragiache, & Vishwanath,
1996). In the 1960s, depending on their national needs,political
leaders receiving countries acted accordingly either to stimulate
or to preventfrom such migrations, yet those who held high degrees
of science could generally begranted immigration permission
(Dedijer, 1968). The British Royal Society, for the firsttime,
coined the term brain drain to describe the outflow of British
scientists to the USin the 1950s and 1960s. As popularly used, the
term brain drain denotes the migrationof scientists, academics,
doctors, engineers and other professionals with universitytraining
from one country to another (Myint, 1968; Shinn, 2002).As the
skilled workforce net flow moves heavily in one direction from
developingcountries to developed countries, it is commonly said
that the former suffer fromshortages of high-level skilled
workforce and losses of resources to train that humancapital. The
latter, on the other hand, gain the needed high-level skills and
save hugesums of money and time needed to educate and train such
specialists at home(Carrington, Detragiache, & Vishwanath,
1996; Rao, 1979; Rapoport, 2002; Salt, 1997).The losses caused by
this global migration have been internationally alerted since
the1960s when the hiring and circulation of skilled workers within
transnationalcorporations (TNCs) has made an increasing
contribution to international migratory flows(Salt, 1997). The
causes and consequences of brain drain led to debates and
resolutionsin the United Nations as early 1967, concerning the
argument that the poor countries losttheir skilled workers to the
rich countries (Lowell, 2002).The discussion on brain drain usually
refers to two groups of people. The firstgroup includes
professionals who migrate from LDCs or who migrate from a
developedeconomy to a more dynamic one, and join the workforce of
the developed countriesimmediately. The other group consists of
students who leave LDCs initially for thepurpose of education and
training and then decide to live and work in developedcountries
(Rao, 1979). Each group has different reasons and expectations for
theirmigration. Some professionals go to developed countries to
work temporarily, and othersmigrate on a long- term basis. The
receiving countries have to carefully assess theprofessionals
qualifications, and judge whether they will be able to make a
social andeconomic contribution. Both the receiving and sending
countries have to make sure thatthe migrating professionals do not
leave any obligations and financial debts at home.Gedamu (2002)
divides international intellectual migrants into three
maincategories. The first group includes flows of professionals
leaving their home countriesdue to economic reasons such as lack of
employment and low salaries. The second typeresults from political
instability in home countries, and thus people do not trust
theirgovernments in creating conditions and opportunities for a
promising future. They areusually disadvantaged individuals due to
their ethnic, cultural, religious belongings orpolitical
affiliation in their home countries. The third cohort consists of
scholars whohave been sent abroad for further professional
development and remain abroad for abetter life, leaving their
families and work at home. Some of them can find good jobs andare
able to secure a stable life, but other migrants expectations are
not met as hoped andbecome ashamed of returning home being
empty-handed. This kind of migration resultsfrom the lack of
appropriate information and misguidance.The Socio-Economic Effects
of Brain Drain
In general, brain drain occurs due to different reasons such as
political and socialturmoil (Adams, 1968; Glaser, 1978; Johnson,
1968; Mountford, 1997; Portes, 1976;Rao, 1979; Thomas; 1968),
economic imbalances (Portes, 1976; Rutherford, 1992), lackof
professional development in home countries (Adams, 1968; Bushnell
& Choy, 2001;Rutherford, 1992; Salt, 1997), and lack of
receptivity in home countries due to the oversupplyof specialized
graduates in LDCs (Kindleberger, 1968; Rutherford, 1992). It
isagreed that brain drain is like a zero-sum game in which rich
nations gain on the loss ofpoor nations (Bhagwati, 1976; Bhagwati,
1979; Bhagwati & Hamada, 1974; Bhagwati &Partington, 1976;
Hamada, 1977). If migration did not happen, the home country
wouldhave a more skilful workforce, and per capita output would be
higher (Stark,Helmenstein, & Prskawetz, 1997; Vidal, 1998).
Although different countries havedifferent socio-economic,
political and historical contexts, brain drain has a negativeeffect
in most sending countries. Stalker (1994) estimates that every year
23,000graduates leave Africa mainly for Europe and North America.
According to the estimatesof the Presidential Committee on Brain
Drain in Nigeria, this country had to lose 10,694professionals from
tertiary education alone during the period from 1986 to 1990,
makingthe nations engine room be taken away due to their economic
and political crises(Anekwe, 2001, p. 1). Also, with a rapidly
growing population, the country has toestablish more educational
institutions to accommodate its expanding population. Yet,there
have been no corresponding employment opportunities for school and
universityleavers, and hence brain drain has occurred. Ethiopia has
also faced the same situationwhen 50% of the Ethiopians who went
abroad for further education have not returnedhome for the past two
decades after completing their studies in the West (Gedamu, 2002,p.
2).The number of temporary resident overseas-trained doctors
arriving in Australiato work in rural and remote areas has
increased from 667 in 1992-1993 to 2,899 in 2001-2002 (AMWAC,
2002). In 2001, 5.7% of the Australian medical workforce was born
inAfrica or the Middle East and 16% (8,348) in Asia (AIHW, 2003).
In the Philippines thereare about 2,000 medical doctors migrating
to western countries while the country cantrain only 1,000 doctors
every year, resulting in both a waste of money on the trainingcosts
and a deficiency of doctors in this country. Many of these
migrating doctors evenaccept to work as nurses with the average
salary of 8,000 USD/month, which is 16 timeshigher than that a
doctor in the Philippines is paid (Tuoi Tre, 05 August, 2005).
Ingeneral, Olesen (2002) estimates that the total number of brain
drain from LDCs toOECD countries is a stock figure of 12.9 million
(with 7 million migrating to the US and5.9 million to OECD
countries), and in most developing countries the migration rate
ishighest among university graduates. Carrington and Enrica (1998)
assert that a majorityof LDC migrants tend to be much better
educated than the rest of the population, andconclude that the very
well educated tend to be the most internationally mobile
group.Amongst the emigrants are students who go abroad to study and
decide not toreturn to their home countries after completing their
courses. Within 40 years, the numberof non-returnees of this type
has increased seven times from 245,000 in 1960 to 1.7million (Asian
students accounting for 44% of the total number) in 2000. In the
US,foreign students account for 35% of the total number of
students. According to the USNational Science Foundation (NSF,
2004), half of the PhD candidates in the US are fromSouth Asia.
Half of these Asian PhD candidates are originally from India and
China whohave already been granted degrees by US educational
institutions and have decided toremain in that country for higher
education. The receiving countries then enjoy themoney that has
been spent on their training. In fact, it is estimated that the US
can earnseven billion US dollars, and the UK two billion US dollars
annually from their braingain (Lien hiep Hoi KH&KT Vietnam,
2004). Among the 150 million people who areparticipating in
scientific activities worldwide, 90% are from the seven most
developedcountries, and 25% are working in the US and Canada. 90%
of patents in the worldbelong to English-speaking countries. These
figures show that there seems an unevenexchange of knowledge
between the east and the west, which is different from
Lukesassertion (2001) about the reciprocal exchange of knowledge
between the two directions.Instead, developed countries are more
dominant in the production and application ofknowledge.For the past
ten years, developed countries have applied measures to
attractskilled workers from developing countries. For example, the
US and Germany haveloosened immigration policies to people from
Russia, China and India who are oftenassumed to possess high
educational backgrounds. To call for skilled labour to come, theUS
also grants Skilled Worker Visas (H-1B and L-1 Visas) to those who
hold at least abachelors degree in the fields which are needed. The
H-1B classification applies topeople in a specialty occupation
which requires theoretical and practical application of abody of
highly specialized knowledge, and the completion of a specific
course of highereducation such as a bachelors degree. According to
the US Chamber of Commerce,since October 2000 the number of visas
granted has annually increased from 140,000 to195,000. Within the
past ten years, the number of immigrants has reached 28.4
million,accounting for 10% of the total US population. The US
Immigration and Nationality Actprovides employment-based immigrant
visas to people with extraordinary ability, whichare classified
into five preference categories including science, arts, education,
businessand athletics. Applicants who are mostly outstanding
professors and researchers mustprove that they have achieved
national or international acclaim and recognition in theirfield of
expertise. Seeking highly skilled workforce from foreign countries,
Australia hasrecently tightened the skilled immigration policy
which strictly requires applicants tohold at least a Masters degree
in certain fields instead of a bachelors degree comparedto the
past. In France, effective measures have been applied to encourage
foreignprofessionals to come and work. In fact, French professors
lecturing in North Africancountries are also asked to call for
local professionals to migrate to France (TheLabourer, 23 March
2005).Brain drain has also occurred amongst developed countries. In
Canada, forinstance, brain drain has been happening in connection
with brain gain the reception ofskilled labour from other countries
to replace the lost professionals. The annual averagepermanent and
temporary emigration in Canada to the United States during the
1990swas in a range of 22,000 to 35,000, accounting for 0.1% of the
Canadian population, andthese emigrants were better educated than
both the Canadian-born population and recentimmigrants to Canada.
While losses of skilled workers to the US accelerated, Canadaalso
enjoyed an influx of 39,000 skilled workers in 1996 into the
nations labour market(The Daily Statistics Canada, 24 May 2000). In
general, as trained workforce movesfrom developing countries to
developed countries, the former experience shortages ofhighly
skilled human resource and suffer losses of financial resources to
train that humancapital while the latter tend to gain the needed
expertise human capacity and save hugesums of money for not having
to train such specialists. In other words, brain drain is likea
slow death for sending countries (Blagov, 2000).In Vietnam, amongst
the 30,000 students studying overseas, approximately 95%who have
received financial assistance and loans have returned home. The
others haveremained in the foreign countries to work to pay the
debt or to pursue higher education(Tin Tuc Vietnam, 23 July 2004;
VNS, 11 November 2004; UNDP, 2002). According tothe writers survey
done at an Australian university in 2005 (Nguyen, 2005),
selffinancingstudents tend not to return to Vietnam after
graduation in order to pay themoney that their parents had to
invest for their education. However, also according to thissurvey,
about 95% of the Vietnamese students at this university expect to
return toVietnam to work due to two main reasons: ties with
families in Vietnam and theirpatriotism. Their patriotism cannot be
seen as the sole love for the country and theprotection of their
home country, but it is expressed as transnational patriotism
withtheir expectations and efforts to contribute to the nations
development even from ageographical distance. This is the
determinant pull factor from Vietnam (the push factorfrom
Australia) while the pull factor from the Australian university
(considered as thepush factor from Vietnam) is the chance to
enhance their professional development in themodern R&D
environment. Consequently, if Vietnam could provide academic
courses ofhigh quality as those in Australia, would students choose
to study abroad? If Vietnameseeducators could train each individual
with real patriotism, would Vietnamese academicschoose to leave
home? It is certain that these questions are just some examples of
thechallenges Vietnam is facing with at the moment.
Sustainable Measures Used to Mitigate Negative Effects of Brain
Drain
To deal with the flows of professionals in the 1960s, when
governments weremaking efforts to mitigate the negative effects of
these migrations, sending countries hadto raise salaries for
professionals, which had to at least reflect their opportunity
costsabroad (Adams & Dirlam, 1968). Yet, this approach seems
unrealistic in poor nations likeVietnam because it lies out of the
States financial capability. Also, salary differentialsamongst
employees may result in many negative effects such as strong
competition to goabroad, passing-the-buck and increasing personal
jealousy. In my view, although the nextagenda seems to be too slow
for LDCs to carry out, they need to create more
local-basedprofessional development opportunities for people and
for those in employment. In fact,it calls for the revolutionary
economic and technological changes that build up a newclass of
professionals who produce innovations and encourage the receptivity
to change.Furthermore, sending countries must restructure
investment in education, tailor theirtraining needs and rationalize
human capacity policies. This approach insists that reformsin
education be carried out to produce the right skills with the right
proportions in orderto produce skilled workforce who possess both
academic and social knowledge in orderto survive and grow in the
changing environment. More specifically, the governmentmust place a
strong emphasis on the training and development of the
knowledge-basedeconomy and R&D.Furthermore, governments must
establish local institutions with both capital andprofessional
assistance from foreign organizations and countries in order to
retain moststudents at home. Attention to and efforts in human
resource management should be paidmore closely to create favourable
conditions for those who have been trained abroad todisseminate the
knowledge that they have learnt overseas to locals. If
exploitedunreasonably, their knowledge is wasted. This is the
alarming situation in Vietnam,especially in State agencies, when
employees with high qualifications and good workingabilities are
not employed properly. After a while, their professional knowledge
maybecome fossilized.The measure of paying remuneration based on
meritocracy and working abilitiesinstead of hiring foreign
professionals also presents some disadvantages in
developingcountries. Attracting well-trained professionals by
offering high salaries is one of themain causes to internal brain
drain. For example, many foreign companies such as Ikea,Electrolux,
P&G Cooperation, BP, Prudential, Ericsson, Mercedes-Benz, etc.
have comeand looked for Vietnamese foreign-trained professionals. A
prospective employee canapproximately earn a monthly salary of
1,000 USD compared to that of 100 USD paid bythe State sector.
These foreign employers are also offering attractive working
promotionprograms to attract as many professionals as possible by
accepting students as interns andthen promoting bright students to
suitable posts in their headquarters. These TNCs haveactually
contributed to GDP in Vietnam, yet at the same time, they are the
Statescompetitors in staff employment.Bhagwati (1976, 1979) and
Gedamu (2002) also suggest another alternativemeasure which is to
tax emigrants who are indigenously trained in their home
countriesin order to stop the influx from overseas. Yet, this
issue, to my mind, is indeed sensitiveand may be not feasible for
some countries which really need specialists to work in
somespecilizations and to replace the lost workers. In addition,
this measure may impinge onthe basic human rights to choose the
nature and location to work and reside.In Vietnam, what the Vietnam
Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) doesis to request
sponsored students and their relatives to sign in an agreement
which forcesthem to return upon the completion of their studies,
otherwise the relatives will be heldaccountable for such illegal
emigration, and will have to pay back the money for thetraining
fees. In 2000 the Ministries of Finance and MOET issued
Circular75/2000/TTLT/BTC-GDDT, under which State-financed
non-returnees must repay all thegrants they have received during
their time abroad three months after their graduation oreven return
home ahead of planned time due to violations of academic rules, or
becausethey have chosen to drop out of their courses. The amount of
repaid money is determinedby the specifics of each case, but must
be at least 50 percent of the total expenses (UNDPin Vietnam, 11
August, 2000). However, in the case of self-financing students,
thepossibility to coerce them to return after graduation seems
impracticable.In my own view, governments can reduce the
possibility of brain drain bybuilding an appropriate number of
training institutions in their countries and designingtraining
programs that best fit their urgent and long-term demands.
Political, economicand educational leaders must reach a consensus
in devising long-term strategic planswhich recognize and prioritise
what expertise fields and the number of expectedprofessionals in
the future are required for the national development. Furthermore,
theycan employ professional locals who have been trained and have
been residing abroad asthe main seeds in disseminating their
knowledge to other local people (Hugo, 2002).Even building networks
of professionals in the same expertise can encourage them
tocontribute their ideas and innovations to the nations development
from overseas. Thisstrategy can reduce the costs and time to send
many people overseas and preventunexpected brain drain. Also, there
must be bilateral and multilateral compromisesamongst sending and
receiving countries to avoid the situation where one countryenjoys
great financial benefits from professional migration whereas others
have tosuffer from the losses. They must plan what kind of
expertise needed for their strategicdevelopment and the quantity of
professionals demanded. The sending countries cannegotiate to send
professionals trained in an abundant number who may be at the risk
ofunemployment. The sending countries and receiving countries can
meet their demands byexchanging professionals, stopping the
unexpected outpouring of talents and facilitatingknowledge to
circulate amongst the countries.In addition, calling for more
foreign universities to come and build their offshorecampuses in
LDCs benefits the course of long term education development. Most
parentswant their children to have a foreign western degree. Also
studying at a foreign-fundeduniversity which is based locally is
less expensive than studying overseas, and helps thelocal currency
circulate inside home countries. Once foreign universities are
built, localhigher education sectors have to urgently improve their
training quality and managementin order to attract more students
for financial competition (economic bottom line) andsocial
competition (training quality and prestige).Not all professional
migrants can secure a better life in a destination countrybecause
their linguistic competence, the skills and knowledge they have
obtainedsomewhere else may not be as appropriate in the foreign
country as in their home countryprior to migration. For example,
some Asian migrants holding high degrees in TESOL(Teaching English
to Speakers of Other Languages), Cultural Studies (American
orVietnamese Studies), or Medicine cannot find jobs appropriate to
their qualifications.This phenomenon causes a human capital waste
(or brain waste termed by OECD,1987 cited in Giannoccolo, 2004, p.
4) in receiving countries and a brain drain in sendingcountries.
Also, employers in receiving countries are not always completely
informed ofmigrants skills except those who have been studying and
working with them for a longtime. Conflicts at workplace may occur
as employers do not share the same culture,background, and language
with those of immigrating workers. Finally, compared to theirlives
in their home countries, many migrants have to start their lives
again almost fromsquare one, e.g. looking for accommodation, or
spending some time adjusting into thenew living. Migrants do return
home due to different reasons such as work failure,retirement, ties
with relatives in home countries, and expectations to contribute to
thehome countries development by sending remittances6 and ideas and
innovations.
Conceptualizing brain drain/brain gain
According to the traditional literature views, the exodus of
human capital is something of a curse for developing countries, and
policies need to be considered to oppose or reduce its negative
impact on the emigration countries, including the taxation of
migrants income abroad. However, in contemporary theoretical
debates, the term brain drain is contrasted with the relatively new
term brain gain which emerged in the late 1990s. 7 This literature
has taken into consideration the benefits of skilled migration
including increased trade, remittances, knowledge, capital
flows--including Foreign Direct Investment (FDI8), and the skills
attained by return migrants in the destination country.9 As a
result, brain drain primarily means the spontaneous phenomena
accompanying skilled persons decisions regarding where to work and
live, without being influenced by any policy-makers or state
administration, whereas brain gain is concerned with the
intentional efforts of different institutions designed to identify
and generate benefits from the outflow of skilled people. goods
produced by skilled labour.150 Clearly the presence of
highly-skilled specialists can improve diverse sectors within
receiving countries. For instance, the report presents data from
the UKs Science and Engineering Policy Studies Unit showing that
the incorporation of scientists and engineers from Eastern Europe
had increased in a variety of institutions in the UK over the
previous few years.151 It can be concluded in few words: a
generally favourable picture is present for the host country from
the immigration of skilled workers.Causes of Increased Brain Drain
in developing countriesThere are many factors which cause brain
drain from the less developing countries to the highly developed
countries. The regional, national and global flow of migrates are
increasing every second. There are two main factors due to which
people move from one place to another place. There are some major
routes of human migration before 1950s but highlighted in 60s. The
reasons can be different region to region; i.e. satisfactory
facilities of goods and services, the reconnection of diverse
cultural groups, in the time of conflict and war, political
instability, health risks and the lack of opportunities. The
mobility of intellectuals and skilled personals or emigrants from
the country of origin referred to as the PUSH FACTORS of their
capital flight. And there are many parallel and inverse reasons for
the immigrants called PULL FACTORS to attract towards host
countries.Theoretical frameworkBrain drain is studied under the
theoretical frame of migration theories under the two main factors
as discussed below:Push factors:There are certain push factors
causing brain drain, to leave the less developed country to
developed countries as listed below:Substandard living conditions,
dearth of conveyance, accommodationUnder-utilization of skilled and
semi- skilled personnel; lack of adequate working conditions; low
panorama of specialized developmentLow and corroding
wagesDiscrimination in recruitments and promotionsSocial unrest,
Political instability, conflicts and warsLack of research
facilities, including support staff; meagerness of research funds,
lack of professional apparatus and toolsLack of freedom and
autonomyDeteriorating excellence of educational system,Why Academic
intellectuals leave their Country of Origin:Challenging
socio-economic conditions (poverty, unemployment, epidemics
diseases, increased rate of crime, corruption, etc.)Poor libraries,
ICT & apparatus for researchLack of autonomy academic freedom
to create literature at universitiesPolitical instability and
harassment, human rights manipulations, warsLack of pure
democracyDeprived payments for intellectuals and skilled
personalsLack of self-determination and social equivalenceLack of
quality education for childrenLack of career opportunitiesLack of
entrepreneurial investmentsWhy Students go abroad:Poor worth of
national education from the Montessori level to post graduation
levelUnavailability of scholarships or financial assistance for the
brilliantMiserable infrastructure of schools, colleges and
universitiesLimited opportunities for higher studies studentsAs a
decided step towards emigration, they suffered with inferiority
complex, due to all the above reasons and many more pushing factors
resulted to leave their point of origin.Why Students Do Not
Return:Limited employment opportunities restrict to come back in
the homelandespecially at PhD level, Course or research work not
relevant to home countrys state of affairsconvenience of grants for
further explorationliving conditions, insufficient earning and job
satisfaction in developed worldNeed to send money home and support
the familyGetting married to a host countrys citizen to get the
citizenshipAlthough, they suffered with many crisis as alienated in
the host country including the identity crisis, diaspora and make
up their own imagined communities to prevent themselves with the
socio-political and religious disparities.Pull FactorsSimilarly,
numerous attractive pull factors at the destination states
permitting the brain drain to occur at a higher leap:Sophisticated
standard of livingEmployment opportunitygreater income and Higher
wagesExtensive resources for research, unconventional and advanced
technology, modern facilities of laboratory equipment; availability
of experienced support workforceHealthier working conditions;
employment and occupation opportunities with the proficient
developmentModern educational schemes; prestige of foreign
trainingPolitical stability & foreigner secured
policiesMeritocracy, transparencyScholarly &Intellectual
autonomyAppreciation & rewards on governmental levelEffects of
Brain Drain in Developing CountriesAftermaths of Brain Drain in
Exaggerated Regions of the globalized world:Negative effects:The
phenomena of brain drain has left harmful effects in the region of
poor countries like Africa, because of their great hope, talents
and skills have immigrated to the richer countries. As seen
pragmatically, develop and rich countries become richer and more
developed and poor and developing countries become poorest and
failure states. Consequently, some of the outcomes have produced
the poorer rates of growth and development, highly instable
politically some are in the condition of cold war like Pakistan
..fewer productive educational funds, and worse health care system
and Loss of potential modernizers who might have paved the way to
rejuvenation and up gradation through their advanced and creative
abilities.Doctors, Engineers, scientists & students leave for
the industrialized worldAfrica loses the best brains it needs for
its trade and industrial development
African recruitment of thousands of expatriates from the
industrialized West at a cost of billions every yearincreased
deterioration of higher schoolingUniversities have to be close,
extension of higher education not possiblePoor people seriously
affected by the epidemic, infectious diseasesUniversities unable to
run and achieving Development GoalsIn the global knowledge economy,
Africa becoming sidelinedDue to the pitiable environment, Lack of
skilled people.Crumbling poor & middle classpolitical
instability & religious persecutionCorruption of income tax
equal to less basic goods and servicesEconomic instability leads to
increased rate of unemployment and inflationLack of industrial
growth & innovation.Positive EffectsThe brain drain may cause
numerous positive effects for source countries. It is well
documented that remittances of employees played a significant
support to GNP of a country and are a viable spring of income in
several developing countries. Remittances and transmittals intrude
on family decisions in terms of professional choice, labor supply,
education, investment migration, and fertility, with hypothetically
essential aggregated special effects. Especially in the case of
poor countries, where market inadequacies available to members of
low-income classes reduce the set of possibilities.Brain
Circulation equalizes Brain DrainTransnational corporation and
increase in Foreign Direct InvestmentWhen possibility of migration
is real. level of education in sending countries risesAmalgamation
in global economies
Advantages of the brain drainA brain drain is effectively an
export of human resources such as education services, which has
inadvertently become a money machine for countries such as the US,
contributing over $7 billion to the US economy.[161] However, it is
important to note that the knowledge and wealth generated is
twofold, both for the country of origin and the host country, which
acquires additional human capital to fill labour gaps, thus
increasing economic development. The country of origin, exporting
their skilled and highly educated workforce, benefit from a brain
gain both in terms of the increase in the labour power they
possess, and also in the fact that skilled migrants leaving the
country generate increased demand for higher level education
amongst the population[162] Furthermore, the sending back of
remittances increases economic development in the country and its
standard of living. Circular migration presents a number of
benefits associated with brain drain. First, the economy of the
origin country may not be able to take advantage of the skilled
labourers, so it becomes more beneficial for the workers to migrate
and send back remittances. Second, when the migrant workers return
home as part of the circular pattern, they may bring with them new
skills and knowledge.Remittances are a positive effect of the brain
drain because they increase living standards in society; as Faini
notes, skilled migrants typically earn more therefore remit more
thus fostering growth.[163] Nevertheless, this is not a precedent.
The remittance economy is a significant part of the brain drain as
well an integral source of income for developed economies: 2011
remittances were estimated at $372bn,[164] and for countries such
as Mexico and the Philippines were worth $24 and $34 billion[164]
respectively.Negative consequences of brain drainWhile a brain
drain is beneficial, its flaws are inherent in its title, since it
usually involves the loss of human capital, i.e. a skilled labour
force which is vital to the development of society and the country
as a whole. In the case of skilled manpower, Alam et al. recognise
emigration of these skilled workers as essentially providing
personal benefits for individuals rather than public
benefits.[165]The brain drain benefits individuals more than
society; however, implementing policies to reduce their movement,
according to Skeldon, "is in effect to act against the process of
development.[162] This means society is inadvertently caught in a
catch-22 scenario, whereby "allowing the Brain Drain to continue is
likely to result in knowledge being distributed unevenly"[161]
across space, resulting in a fall in economic development for
either the country of origin or destination countries.Another
consequence of the brain drain is the existence of social
marginalisation, which occurs due to several reasons. For example,
highly skilled labourers have been villainised by society because
they may be perceived as a disruption to existing society. The
migrants themselves, who have struggled to adapt to their new
surroundings and way of life, may subsequently perceive themselves
as living 'parallel lives.' The most pressing issue skilled
migrants face in contemporary society, however, is what Tsuda
refers to as double marginalisation,[166] which is when migrants
are kept from integrating into their new surroundings either by
society or by existing governments, and upon their return home are
shunned by the community they originally migrated from due to their
earlier departure. Double marginalisation has become a common
feature in contemporary society, which has in some respects reduced
the amount of skilled migration occurring.Impact on the health
systems of developing countriesDespite the existence of significant
global efforts trying to improve health and healthcare systems in
the developing world, the money invested is insufficient, as health
workers from the developing countries leave their home countries
and immigrate to the developed world, assuming low-status positions
in rich countries. As a result of many local health workers
abandoning their countries, countries in the developing world lack
sufficient health care workers, which harms the local health
system. Health systems in the developing world are receiving
financial aid to deal with significant diseases and health issues
such as child mortality, AIDS, and malaria. However, the money is
ineffective, as there is not sufficient manpower in the form of
medical and health professionals to do the work required, which
further damages the health system rather than strengthening
it.[167]The utility of the brain drainIn assessing the usefulness
of brain drain, it is important to understand that for some of the
worlds developing countries "the gains from migration accrue
neither from migrant remittances nor do they return home with
amplified skills acquired abroad".[168] The gains come instead from
the increase in promotion of education of highly skilled labour in
developing countries, as well as investment in infrastructure.
Nonetheless there does exist a vast "remittance economy worldwide
worth $510 billion in 2007"The real reason for Indias brain drainWe
always come across reports of how much talented Indians are and are
conquering the world in the field of technology & business.
There are several reports suggesting that Indians dominate the
technology industry of USA.
But why are most of those Indians not in India but in US/UK? If
we go a little more in depth to analyze this issue, we will begin
to notice that the top Indian professionals & entrepreneurs
today in US had actually left India during 1970s & 80s after
obtaining their degrees in India. So, Why did we have such a severe
brain drain in 1970s and 80s?One common answer we get is that India
did not have the right opportunities for their specialization.
Maybe true for technical PhD holders who need employment from
research institutes which might not have been prevalent in India.
But what about entrepreneurs? They had a market of 0.7 billion ppl,
something that nobody would like to ignore. Instead of going to a
foreign land and toiling hard to become entrepreneurs, why did they
not remain in India and do the same here? Afterall, India being a
developing nation could have provided them a chance to experiment
as well as capture marketshare.It is easy to say that they were
greedy, did not care for our country and flee to the US for greener
pastures. But the real reason lies in the political & economic
system.This snapshot of the 1974 budget might give us some hints.
During Indira Gandhis rule in 1970s, income tax was at an all time
high with the top slab having a tax rate of 97.75%
!!ConclusionRecommendation for the developing countries:How the
future of developing countries can preserve and what should be the
recommendation?Establish recorded database of skilled,
intellectual, students and specialists on the time of departure
from LDCs.Reformation of the national education system and the
infrastructure of schools, colleges and universities.High budget
allocated for the higher education and use of funds purely for the
education projects.Sufficient facilities for research projects in
universities and establish the research cells.Encourage the distant
learning and education for all.Pure democracy, encourage human
rights and enforce the legislation, strictly keep an eye on the law
and order situation to stable and regulate the factors like
corruption, crime etc.On governmental level, the allocation of
budgets to the science and technology organizations and from the
health sector to control the infectious diseases.Introduce new
policies and laws to reduce the conflict and war at the national
and international level.Role of government should be the key role
to avoid the issue of human capital flight.Government should spend
heavy fund for the infrastructure, avoid load shedding like issues
and provide the demanded power supply and drinking water and the
efficient communication.Facilitate the education system through
training, research, and educationGovernment should advertised job
opportunities on merit & provide specific allowance and salary
for the scientists, engineers, doctors and highly
intellectualsState should reduce the rooted conflict to maintain
peaceDemocratic governance is the best solution for the cancerous
problem of brain drain.Engage the LDCs best organizations with DCs
and encourage the collective training and work with DCs as
partnersIf west needs some research they should request on the
governmental level for researchHow western countries can help to
reduce brain drain?Ensure through incentives and immigration
policies, intellectual return back to their resource countries
discourage labor recruitment through academics and qualified
personalsDiscourage full time attendance for the foreigner graduate
studentsConsideration of joint degrees with developing world
universitiesEncourage riven PHDs instead of 100% attendanceSupport
university association to progress LDCs (curriculum, quality and
methodology of research)Collaboration through appropriate
university association for e.g. (HEC, AAU, ACU, AUF IAN)