Brain drain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the emigration term. For other uses, see Brain Drain
(disambiguation).

Human capital flight, more commonly referred to as "brain drain", is the large-scale
emigration of a large group of individuals withtechnical skills or knowledge. The reasons
usually include two aspects which respectively come from countries and individuals. In
terms of countries, the reasons may be social environment (in source countries: lack of
opportunities, political instability, economic depression, health risks; in host countries:
rich opportunities, political stability and freedom, developed economy, better living
conditions). In terms of individual reasons, there are family influence (overseas
relatives, and personal preference: preference for exploring, ambition for an improved
career, etc). Although the term originally referred to technology workers leaving a
nation, the meaning has broadened into: "the departure of educated or professional
people from one country, economic sector, or field for another, usually for better pay or
living conditions".[1] Brain drain is usually regarded as an economic cost, since
emigrants usually take with them the fraction of value of their training sponsored by
the government or other organizations. It is a parallel of capital flight, which refers to the
same movement of financial capital. Brain drain is often associated with de-skilling of
emigrants in their country of destination, while their country of emigration experiences
the draining of skilled individuals.

The term brain drain was coined by the Royal Society to describe the emigration of

"scientists and technologists" to North Americafrom post-war Europe.[2] Another source
indicates that this term was first used in the United Kingdom to describe the influx of
Indian scientist and engineers.[3] The converse phenomenon is "brain gain", which
occurs when there is a large-scale immigration of technically qualified persons. There
are also relevant phrases called "brain circulation" and "brain waste".

Brain drain is common amongst developing nations, such as the former colonies
of Africa,[4] the island nations of the Caribbean,[5] and particularly in centralized
economies such as former East Germany and the Soviet Union, where marketable skills
were not financially rewarded.

[edit]Historical examples

[edit]Spanish expulsion of Jews and Moors

After the end of the Catholic reconquest of Spain, the Catholic Monarchs pursued a
religiously uniform kingdom. Jews were expelled from the country in 1492. As they
dominated financial services in the country, their expulsion was instrumental in causing
future economic problems, such as the need of foreign bankers such as
the Fugger family and from Genoa. On 7 January 1492 the King ordered the expulsion
of all the Jews from Spain-from the kingdoms of Castile, Catalonia, Aragon, Galicia,
Majorca, Minorca, the Basque provinces, the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, and the
kingdom of Valencia. Before that the Queen had expelled them from the kingdom of
Andalusia[6] More information is available in Jewish History Sourcebook.

The war against Turks and North African Moors affected internal policy in the uprising of
the Alpujarras (1568–1571) and motivated theExpulsion of the Moriscos in 1609.
Despite being demographically a minority they were a key part of the farming sector and
trained artisans. Their departure contributed to economic decline in some regions of
Spain. This way, the conservative aristocracy increased its power over economically
developed provinces.

[edit]Huguenot exodus from France (17th century)

In 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and declared Protestantism to be illegal
in the Edict of Fontainebleau. After this,Huguenots (with estimates ranging from
200,000 to 1,000,000[7]) fled to surrounding Protestant countries: England,
the Netherlands,Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Prussia — whose Calvinist Great
Elector Frederick William welcomed them to help rebuild his war-ravaged and
underpopulated country. Many went to the Dutch colony at the Cape (South Africa)
where they were instrumental in establishing a wine industry. [8] Gustav and Peter Carl
Fabergé, the descendants of Huguenot refugees, founded the world
famousFabergé company in Russia.

Others went to the newly established British colonies in North America. They and their
descendants were instrumental in the growth of the United States. Revolutionary
leaders John Sevier, Francis Marion and Paul Revere were descendants of Huguenot
refugees. Seven other U.S. presidents have documented Huguenot ancestors: George
Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Harry Truman, Gerald
Ford and Lyndon Johnson.[9]

The exodus of Huguenots from France created a brain drain as Huguenots accounted
for a disproportionate number of entrepreneurial,artisan, and technical occupations in
the country. The loss of this technical expertise was a blow from which the kingdom did
not fully recover for many years.[citation needed]

[edit]Anti-Semitism in pre-WWII Europe (1933–1943)

Antisemitic feelings and laws in Europe through the 1930s and 1940s, culminating in
the Holocaust, caused the emigration of many scientists to the United States. Notable
examples are:

 Albert Einstein (emigrated permanently to the United States in 1933)

 Enrico Fermi (1938; though not Jewish himself, his wife Laura was)
 Niels Bohr (1943; his mother was Jewish)
 Theodore von Karman
 John von Neumann
and many others.

In addition to the anti-Semitic conditions, Nazi political persecution against liberals and
socialists in Germany contributed to another kind of emigration. The Bauhaus, perhaps
the most important arts and design school of the 20th century, was forced to close down
during the Nazi regime because of their liberal and socialist leanings, which the Nazis
considered degenerate.[citation needed] The school had already been shut down in Weimar
because of its political stance but moved to Dessau prior to the closing. Following this
abandonment, two of the three pioneers of Modern architecture, Mies Van Der
Rohe and Walter Gropius, left Germany for America (while Le Corbusier stayed in
France). Along with them, they brought the European modern movement to the
American public and fostered the international style in architecture and design.[citation
needed]
 They helped to transform design education at American universities and thus
influenced a generation of up and coming architects. [citation needed]

[edit]Eastern Bloc brain drain crisis (1922-1961)

Berlin Wall 1975
Main articles: Eastern Bloc emigration and defection and Eastern Bloc

By 1922, the Soviet Union had issued restrictions making emigration of its citizens to

other countries almost impossible.[10] Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev later stated "We
were scared, really scared. We were afraid the thaw might unleash a flood, which we
wouldn't be able to control and which could drown us. How could it drown us? It could
have overflowed the banks of the Soviet riverbed and formed a tidal wave which would
have washed away all the barriers and retaining walls of our society." [11] After Soviet
occupation of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, the majority of those living in
the newly acquired areas of theEastern Bloc aspired to independence and wanted the
Soviets to leave.[12] By the early 1950s, the approach of the Soviet Union to
restricting emigration was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc, including
East Germany.[13]

Even with the closing of the Inner German border officially in 1952,[14] the border

between the sectors of East Berlin and West Berlinremained considerably more
accessible than the rest of the border because it was administered by all four occupying
powers.[15] The Berlin sector border was essentially a "loophole" through which East
Bloc citizens could still escape.[14] The 3.5 million East Germans,
called Republikflüchtlinge, that had left by 1961 totaled approximately 20% of the entire
East German population.[16] The emigrants tended to be young and well educated,
leading to the brain drain feared by officials in East Germany. [12] Yuri Andropov, then
the CPSU Director on Relations with Communist and Workers Parties of Socialist
Countries, wrote an urgent August 28, 1958 letter to the Central Committee about the
significant 50% increase in the number of East German intelligentsia among the
refugees.[17]Andropov reported that, while the East German leadership stated that they
were leaving for economic reasons, testimony from refugees indicated that the reasons
were more political than material.[17] He stated "the flight of the intelligentsia has reached
a particularly critical phase."[17] The direct cost of manpower losses has been estimated
at $7 billion to $9 billion, with East German party leaderWalter Ulbricht later claiming
that West Germany owed him $17 billion in compensation, including reparations as well
as manpower losses.[16] In addition, the drain of East Germany's young population
potentially cost it over 22.5 billion marks in lost educational investment. [18] In August
1961, East Germany erected a barbed-wire barrier that would eventually be expanded
through construction into the Berlin Wall, effectively closing the loophole.[19]

[edit]By region
[edit]Europe
Brain drain phenomena in Europe fall into two distinct trends. The first is an outflow of
highly-qualified scientists from Western Europemostly to the United States.[20] The
second is a migration of skilled workers from Eastern and Southeastern Europe into
Western Europe, often made easy by new EU membership,[21] although there is
evidence that the trend is slowing.[22][23] The European Union has noted a net loss of
highly-skilled workers and introduced a "blue card" policy – much like the
American green card – which "seeks to draw an additional 20 million workers from Asia,
Africa and Latin America in the next two decades". [24]

Although the EU recognizes a need for extensive immigration in order to mitigate the
effects of an aging population,[25] nationalist political parties have gained support in
many European countries by calling for stronger laws restricting immigration.
[26]
 Immigrants are perceived as a burden on the state and cause of social problems like
increased crime rates, even in the absence of hard evidence.[27]

[edit]Western Europe
In 2006, over 250,000 Europeans emigrated to the United States (164,285),
[28]
 Australia (40,455),[29] Canada (37,946)[30] and New Zealand (30,262).
[31]
 Germany alone saw 155,290 people leave the country (though mostly to destinations
within Europe). This is the highest rate of worker emigration since reunification, which
itself was equal to the rate in the aftermath of World War II.[32] Portugal is suffering the
largest drain in Western Europe. The country has lost 19.5% of its qualified population
and is struggling to absorb sufficient skilled immigrants to cater for losses to Australia,
Canada, Switzerland, Germany and Austria.[33]

[edit]Central and Eastern Europe

More than 500,000 Russian scientists and computer programmers have left the country
since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.[34]Central and Eastern European countries
have expressed concerns about extensive migration of skilled labourers to Ireland and
theUnited Kingdom. Lithuania, for example, has lost about 100,000 citizens since 2003,
many of them young and well-educated, to emigration to Ireland in particular. [citation
needed]
 (Ireland itself used to suffer serious brain drain to America, Britain and Canada
before the Celtic Tiger economic programmes.) A similar phenomenon occurred
in Poland after its entry into the European Union. In the first year of its EU membership,
100,000 Poles registered to work in England, joining an estimated 750,000 residents of
Polish descent.[35]Research conducted by PKO Bank Polski, Poland's largest retail bank,
shows that 63% of Polish immigrants to the UK are aged between 24 and 35 with 40%
possessing a university degree.[36] However, with the rapid growth of salaries in Poland,
booming economy, strong value of the złoty, and decreasing unemployment (which fell
from 14.2% in May 2006 to 8% in March 2008[37]), the flight of Polish workers is slowing.
[38]
 In 2008 and early 2009 people who came back outnumbered those leaving the
country. The exodus is likely to continue. [39]

Albania is also one of the countries that has experienced brain drain from the fall of
communist regime. Since 1991,people started emigrating in the closest countries, Italy
and Greece and with the passing of years going further to United Kingdom, Canada and
Untied States. In the last 10 years, educated people and professionals have been
leaving the country and going in other countries where they feel they can have better
possibilities, better and secure lives. This is a concern for Albania as it is losing its
skilled-workers and professionals.

[edit]Southeastern Europe
The rapid and small-scale departure of highly-skilled workers from Southeastern Europe
has caused concern about those nations developing towards inclusion in the European
Union.[40] This has sparked programmes to curb the outflow by encouraging skilled
technicians and scientists to remain in the region to work on international projects. [41]

[edit]Africa
Conservatively speaking, "Brain drain has cost the African continent over $4 billion in
the employment of 150,000 expatriate professionals annually." [42] According to UNDP,
"Ethiopia lost 75 per cent of its skilled workforce between 1980 and 1991," which harms
the ability of such nations to get out of poverty. Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia are
believed to be the most affected. In the case of Ethiopia, the country produces many
excellent doctors, but there are more Ethiopian doctors in Chicago than there are in
Ethiopia.[43]South African President Thabo Mbeki said in his 1998 'African Renaissance'
speech:

"In our world in which the generation of new knowledge and its application to change
the human condition is the engine which moves human society further away from
barbarism, do we not have need to recall Africa's hundreds of thousands of intellectuals
back from their places of emigration in Western Europe and North America, to rejoin
those who remain still within our shores! I dream of the day when these, the African
mathematicians and computer specialists in Washington and New York, the African
physicists, engineers, doctors, business managers and economists, will return from
London and Manchester and Paris and Brussels to add to the African pool of brain
power, to enquire into and find solutions to Africa's problems and challenges, to open
the African door to the world of knowledge, to elevate Africa's place within the universe
of research the information of new knowledge, education and information."

Africarecruit is a joint initiative by NEPAD and the Commonwealth Business Council to

recruit professional expatriate Africans to take employment back in Africa after working
overseas.[44]

[edit]Ghana
The trend for young doctors and nurses to seek higher salaries and better working
conditions, mainly in the West, is killing the healthcare sector in Ghana. Ghana currently
has about 2000 doctors—one for every 11,000 inhabitants. This compares with one
doctor per 2000 people in the United States. Many of the country's trained doctors and
nurses leave to work in countries such as Britain, the United States, Jamaica and
Canada, in what many refer to as the brain drain. It is estimated that up to 68% of the
country's trained medical staff left between 1993 and 2000 and according to Ghana's
official statistics institute, in the period 1999 to 2004, 448 doctors, or 54% of those
trained in the period, left to work abroad. [45]

[edit]South Africa
Main article: Economy of South Africa#Human capital flight

Along with many African nations, South Africa has been experiencing a "brain drain" in
the past 20 years. This is believed to be potentially damaging for the regional economy,
[46]
 and is almost certainly detrimental for the wellbeing of regional poor majority
desperately reliant on the healthcare infrastructure given the HIV/AIDS epidemic. [47] The
skills drain in South Africa tends to demonstrate racial contours (naturally given the
skills distribution legacy of South Africa) exacerbated by Black Economic
Empowerment policies, and has thus resulted in large White South African communities
abroad.[48] The problem is further highlighted by South Africa's request of Canada to
stop recruiting its doctors and other highly skilled medical personnel. [49]

[edit]Western Asia
[edit]Iraq
The lack of basic services and security is feeding an outflow of professionals
from Iraq that began under Saddam Hussein, under whose rule 4 million Iraqis are
believed to have left the country.[50] The exodus is fuelled by invasion of Iraq by U.S.A
and subsequent violence, which, as of 2006, has seen 89 university professors and
senior lecturers killed.[51]

[edit]Iran
Main article: Iran's brain drain

In 2006, the International Monetary Fund ranked Iran highest in brain drain among 90

measured countries.[52] The estimated exodus of 180,000 people per year is thought to
be due to a poor job market, and tense domestic social conditions. [53] [54]

[edit]Asia Pacific
[edit]Malaysia
There has been a serious brain drain from Malaysia. Official papers [citation needed] reported
that there are a million talented Malaysians working overseas. Recently the brain drain
has increased in pace: 300,000 Malaysians migrated overseas within 18 months since
Jan 2008 for different reasons and among them 200,000 migrated in the first eight
months of 2009.

[edit]Philippines
Another example of serious brain drain is the Philippines. Doctors, Nurses, Engineers,
mostly professionals are more often than not seeking better job opportunities in
developed countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore,
and the Middle East.

[edit]South Asia
[edit]India
The UNDP estimates that India loses $2 billion a year because of the emigration of
computer experts to the U.S.[55] Indian students going abroad for their higher studies
costs India a foreign exchange outflow of $10 billion annually. [56] Although India faces
large outflow of intellectuals, the government nearly takes no measures to curb this
situation, because the Indian government believes that the outflow of intellectuals is not
necessarily bad for India. These Indian overseas will benefit India one day eventually.
On the other hand, the Indian government makes great efforts to prevent the outflow of
capitals.[57]

[edit]Eastern Asia
[edit]China
China is now a rising star in the world stage. With the rapid growth of GDP and the
higher degree of openness towards the rest of the world, however, the brain drain is
increasingly serious. A popular Internet writer recently caused a stir when he asserted
that “all Chinese who earn more than 120,000 yuan ($17,650) a year want to
immigrate.” While this view is exaggerated, there is no denying the upsurge in Chinese
emigration to Western countries—particularly the United States, Canada and Australia
—since the mid-first decade of the 21st century. [58] China became the biggest worldwide
contributor of emigrants in 2007. According to the official Chinese media, 65,000
Chinese last year secured immigration or permanent resident status in the United
States, 25,000 in Canada and 15,000 in Australia. [58] The largest group of emigrants
consists of professionals and experts with a middle-class background, [58] who are the
backbone for the development of China. As the biggest contributor of emigrants, China
also suffers the worst brain drain in the world, according to a new study that found
seven out of every 10 students who enroll in an overseas university never return to live
in their homeland.[59]

The brain drain usually happens in two ways, including that the skilled intellectuals
migrate to other countries, and students study overseas and then stay abroad. In China,
both ways exist, but the second one is more popular and common.

Since the beginning of last century, international students were sent to different

countries to learn advanced skills and knowledge, and they were expected to return to
save the nation from invasion and poverty. While most of these students came back to
make a living, there were still those who chose to stay abroad. From 1950s to 1970s,
China was in a period of widespread upheaval due to political instability. As a result,
many Chinese felt upset and disappointed about the situation. The situation did not
improve after the gradual liberalization of China during the 80s; just as many people
chose to go abroad since there were more opportunities overseas. More social
upheavals happened with the Tiananmen Square Massacre - the result of which was an
increasing Chinese diaspora. As steady economic growth boost GDP per capita, more
families in China are able to support their children to go abroad for studying or living. All
of these factors contribute to the current brain drain in China. In this day and age, most
students do not go back to China if they are able to find a good job abroad. Wealthy
Chinese people tend to settle down abroad to enjoy high quality of life.

Statistics of Brain Drain in China

Chart 1: the return rate of Chinese international students

Yea The number of Chinese The number of returned Rate of
r international students international students return（%）

1978 860 248 28.84

1979 1777 231 18.16

1980 2124 162 13.46

1981 2922 1143 23.22

1982 2326 2116 38.96

1983 2633 2303 49.07

1984 3073 2290 54.04

1985 4888 1424 48.13

1986 4676 1388 44.72

1987 4703 1605 43.06

1988 3786 3000 47.12

1989 3329 1753 47.61

1990 2950 1593 48.08

1991 2900 2069 49.65

1992 6540 3611 50.39

1993 10742 5128 49.92

1994 19071 4230 43.25

1995 20381 5750 40.17

1996 20905 6570 38.66

1997 22410 7130 37.58

1998 17622 7379 38.05

1999 23749 7748 37.36

2000 38989 9121 34.92

2001 83973 12243 29.36

2002 125179 17945 25.01

2003 117307 20152 23.34

2004 114682 24726 23.03

2005 118515 34987 24.02

2006 134000 42000 25.09

The statistics from this chart shows an increasing trend of Chinese international
students from 1978 to 2006, while the number of people returned to China also
increased. However ,the return rate fluctuated in those years.

Chart 2: Chinese students and scholars in USA

Chinese Students（Rank in percentage of all the Percentage of

Chinese
Year the number of international international students foreign scholars in
scholars
students in USA） in USA（%） USA（%）

1990/9
39600 (1) 9.7 n.a. n.a.
1

1991/9
42910 (1) 10.2 n.a. n.a.
2

1992/9
45130 (1) 10.3 n.a. n.a.
3

1993/9
44380 (1) 9.9 11156 18.6
4

1994/9
39403 (2) 8.7 9866 17.0
5

1995/9
39613 (2) 8.7 9228 15.5
6
1996/9
42503 (2) 7.8 9724 15.6
7

1997/9
46958 (2) 9.8 10709 16.4
8

1998/9
51001 (1) 10.4 11854 16.8
9

1999/0
54466 (1) 10.6 13229 17.7
0

2000/0
59939 (1) 10.9 14772 18.5
1

2001/0
63211 (2) 10.8 15624 18.2
2

2002/0
64757 (2) 11.0 15171 18.0
3

2003/0
61765 (2) 10.8 14923 18.0
4

2004/0
62523 (2) 11.1 17035 19.0
5

2005/0
62582 (2) 11.1 19017 19.6
6

2006/0
67723 (2) 11.6 20149 20.5
7
Statistics sources[60]

[edit]Australasia
[edit]Pacific Islands
The post-WWII migration trends in the Pacific Islands has essentially followed these
trends

 Most Pacific island nations that were formerly under UK mandate have had
migration outflows to Australia and New Zealand since the de-colonialization of the
region from the 1960s to the 1990s. There has only been a limited outflow from
these islands to Canada and the UK since de-colonialization.
 Most Pacific islands administered by France (like Tahiti) have had an outflow into
France.
 Most Pacific islands under some kind of US administration have had inflows into
the US, and to a lesser extent Canada.
[edit]New Zealand
During the 1990s, 30,000 New Zealanders were emigrating each year. An OECD report
released in 2005 revealed that 24.2% of New Zealanders with a tertiary education were
living outside of New Zealand, predominantly in Australia.[61] In 2007, around 24,000
New Zealanders settled in Australia.[62] Student loans are cited as a reason, with
graduates using higher foreign salaries to pay off their debts.

It has been noted that New Zealand also enjoys immigration of qualified foreigners,
potentially leaving a net gain of skills.[63]
[edit]North America
[edit]Canada
Colonial administrators in Canada observed the trend of human capital flight to
the United States as early as the 1860s, when it was already clear that a majority of
immigrants arriving at Québec were en route to destinations in the United States.
Alexander C. Buchanan, government agent at Quebec, argued that
prospective emigrants should be offered free land to remain in Canada. The problem of
attracting and keeping the right immigrants has been a constant in Canadian
immigration history.[64]

In the 1920s, over 20% of university graduating classes in engineering and science
were emigrating to the United States. When governments displayed no interest,
concerned industrials formed the Technical Service Council in 1927 to combat the brain
drain. As a practical means of doing so, the Council operated a placement service that
was free to graduates.

By 1976, the Council had placed over 16,000 men and women. Between 1960 and
1979 over 17,000 engineers and scientists emigrated to the United States. But the
exodus of technically trained Canadians leaving dropped from 27% of the graduating
classes in 1927 to under 10% in 1951 and 5% in 1967.

In Canada today, the idea of a brain drain to the United States is occasionally a
domestic political issue. At times, 'brain drain' is used as a justification for income
tax cuts. During the 1990s, some alleged a brain drain from Canada to the United
States, especially in thesoftware, aerospace, health care and entertainment industries,
due to the perception of higher wages and lower income taxes in the US. [65] Some also
suggest that engineers and scientists were also attracted by the greater diversity of jobs
and a perceived lack of research funding in Canada.

The evidence suggests that, in the 1990s, Canada did indeed lose some of its
homegrown talent to the US.[66] Nonetheless, Canada hedged against these losses by
attracting more highly skilled workers from abroad. This allowed the country to realize a
net brain gainas more professionals entered Canada than left (even today, Canada still
enjoys a net brain gain).[66] Sometimes, the qualifications of these migrants are given no
standing in Canada (see credentialism), resulting in some - though not all - highly skilled
professionals being forced into lower paying service sector jobs.

More recently however, Canada's resilient economy, strong domestic market, enviable
standard of living, and considerable wage growth across a number of sectors, have
effectively ended the brain drain debate in Canada. [67][68] In a stunning reversal of
fortunes, Canada's economic success has even attracted some top US talent north. [67][68]
[69][70][71]
 In the first decade of the 21st century, Canadian productivity grew while the US'
evened out.[67] Anecdotal evidence also suggests that stringent US security measures
put in place afterSeptember 11th, 2001 have helped to end the brain drain debate in
Canada.[72]

[edit]United States
The 2000 United States Census Bureau published a special report on domestic worker
migration, with a focus on the movement of young, single, college-educated migrants.
[73]
 The data shows a trend of such people moving away from the Rust Belt and
northernGreat Plains region towards the West Coast and Southeast. The area with the
largest net influx of young, single, college-educated persons was the San Francisco Bay
Area.

The country as a whole does not experience a large-scale brain drain to other countries,
since it is often the destination of skilled workers migrating from elsewhere in the world.
[citation needed]
 However, the U.S. (like other countries) have been experiencing
widespread rural depopulation in the past few decades which has seen many young
rural graduates move to urban/suburban areas. This has negatively impacted rural
communities in the U.S.[citation needed]

[edit]Mid-2009 reversal
Sometime in late 2008, the number of people leaving the US started to slightly exceed
the number coming in.[74] In US immigration history, this trend is an interesting historical
reversal. Typically, the US has always had greater immigration inflows than outflows for
most of its post-1800 history.

However, there is (and always has been) a great amount of difficulty determining the
numbers of illegal immigrants in the US. The scale of this migration outflow reversal so
far seems to be somewhat small in magnitude versus the US population as a whole.
This exodus's knock on economic effects will probably remain invisible to the US
economy due to the masking effects of the 2007 finance system crisis. It is suspected
that this outflow is mostly happening with non-Hispanic university level trained
immigrants in technical sectors, not with unskilled persons (mostly from the Americas
and Caribbean) choosing to leave.[75]

[edit]Latin America
There is a surge of intellectuals leaving Latin America who are usually doctors,
architects, and engineers. They often choose the USA as their destination. However,
after migrating, most of them work in jobs that have nothing to do with their original
majors. Therefore, it is not only brain drain for their own countries, but also brain waste
for the whole world.[76]

In some Latin American nations, where enrollment at local medical schools is very high,
there is a chronic shortage of doctors.

A 2000 study revealed that a number of Latin American countries had, over the years,
suffered a considerable loss of professionals. As a percentage of each country's corps
of university graduates, the following percentages lived overseas:
Country Loss of professionals
Argentina 2.9%
Brazil 3.3%
Chile 5.3%
Colombia 11.0%
Ecuador 10.9%
Mexico 14.3%[77]

The same study revealed that during the 1990s, a significant number of those who
emigrated from Latin America were specialized professionals, constituting the following
proportions as a percent of each country's volume of emigrants:
Country Loss of professionals
Argentina 19.1%
Chile 15.6%
Mexico 2.6%
Peru 10.0%[78]
[edit]Cuba
In 2007, Cuban officials claimed that 31,000 Cuban doctors were deployed in 61
countries.[79] A large number practice in South America. 20,000 are employed
in Venezuela in exchange for nearly 100,000 barrels (16,000 m3) of oil per day.
[80]
 However, state employees serving at assigned foreign posts that earn money or
resources for their government do not exactly fall under the definition of brain drain.
From Venezuela and Bolivia, where another 1,700 doctors work, it is thought that as
many as 500 doctors may have fled the missions into countries nearby; these would
constitute brain drain.[79] Figures are dubious, since the defections are rarely made
public.

[edit]Caribbean
Most of the Caribbean Islands endure a substantial emigration of qualified workers.
Approximately 30% of the labour forces of many islands have left, and more than 80%
of college graduates from Suriname, Haiti, Grenada and Guyana have emigrated,
mostly to theUnited States.[81] Over 80% of Jamaicans with higher education live abroad.
[82]
 However, it is noted that these nationals pay valuable remittances. In Jamaica, the
money sent back amounts to 18% of GNP.[83] This calls into question whether this trend
can be described as a true brain drain.

[edit]Preventative measures

Talents play important roles in helping a country develop. The economy of a country
that has a large number of world-class scientists and technicians can be more
innovative than the others that don't.[84] It is essential to formulate policies to
compensate poor countries and encourage highly-educated immigrants or students to
go back.[85] But here there is no general summary for the measures because different
areas and nations have distinct policies to deal with brain drain due to the different
national or regional situation. For instance, in African countries, the health systems have
been severely affected by brain drain, so various measures have been suggested and
tried to limit the migration of health workers to rich countries. [85] In Kuwait, it is suggested
to cultivate a sense of security and hope among the elite to curb brain drain because
people are not so confident of their countries' future. [86] China tries to create a normal
and free atmosphere and mechanism that would help talents flourish. [87] And in India,
although suffering severe brain drain every year, the Indian government is still optimistic
not to adopt any strict policies because they believe that the overseas talent will
eventually contribute to the nation in the future. [57]

Related phenomena

[edit]Brain gain
An opposite situation, in which many trained and talented individuals seek entrance into
a country, is called a brain gain; this may create a brain drain in the nations that the
individuals are leaving. A Canadian symposium in the late Nineties gave circulation to
the new term, in response to Canada luring more skilled professionals to the country
than it actually lost.

In 2000, the US Congress announced it was raising the annual cap on the number of
temporary work visas granted to highly skilled professionals under its H1B
visa program, from 115,000 to 195,000 per year, effective through 2003. That suggests
a rough figure for the influx of talent into the United States at that time. A significant
portion of this program was initiated by lobbyists from the computer industry,
including Bill Gates.[88] In the same year the UK government, in cooperation with
the Wolfson Foundation, a research charity, launched a £20 million, five-year research
award scheme aimed at drawing the return of the UK's leading expatriate scientists and
sparking the migration of top young researchers to the United Kingdom.

[edit]Brain circulation
In general most developing countries suffer brain drain because emigrant intellectuals
refuse to return. Some migrants do return to their home countries or become
transnational with homes in different countries.[89]

[edit]Brain waste

Sometimes migrants to other countries or urban areas are not able to obtain
employment commensurate with their educational qualifications. This is called brain
waste.89]