Brain drain
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With globalization comes “Brain-drain” phenomenon. In a financial crisis situation, many skilled workers migrate to another country for better opportunity, better jobs, and better salaries. According to a recent U.S government study, 78 percent of skilled workers interviewed worldwide said they would be willing to relocate to any country for better jobs. Nearly 47 percent said they would leave their home country at any time and three in five said they would do so permanently. In the past several years, number of highly skilled workers immigrated to the U.S and Europe increased significantly, many attracted by better salaries and work environment.
But what happens to countries where these skilled workers leave behind? According to another U.S Government study, the “Brain drain” had caused significant economic problems for many developing countries and they believed that the global competition hurt them. Nearly 63 percent of local companies express concern about the migration of skilled workers to developed countries and believe that their governments are NOT “doing enough” to stop this flow. Of course, controlling the flow of skilled people around the world is NOT a priority for many governments as they have to deal with so many other important and urgent issues. In the short term, by allowing people to go rather than keep them and not having good jobs for them, is a waste of their talents. There is a benefit as these migrating people are making more money, they tend to send some back to support their families and this flow of money could help the local economy. However, in the long term, it would be difficult to grow the economy because there are not enough skilled workers to run new business. Without new businesses, the economy can not improve then unemployment and stagnation could run rampant.
According to the study, Taiwan, India and New Zealand express the most concern about the impact of 'brain drain' on their economies resulting from skilled people leaving their country to work in another country. On the other hand, China, Ireland, Philippines, Japan, and S, Korea are least concerned about the issue. Among skilled workers considering foreign opportunities, the U.S., UK and Western Europe are the preferred destinations because they could make better salaries and better life than their own country. The study also found that the higher the level of educational attainment, the greater the willingness to move even half of them will have to learn new language.
The United Nation study found that the “brain drain” phenomenon threatens development of poor and developing countries. The data shows that in Africa and Central America, more than half of all university graduates migrate to developed countries, with potentially serious consequences for critical sectors such as education, health and engineering. Without teachers, engineers and healthcare people, these countries will not be able to improve although they had invested heavily on the education and training of their people and lost them to others.
The current financial crisis has created a difficult situation for many skilled workers in their own country. It would be easier for them to migrate and find new jobs in another country than waiting for jobs in their own country. Even with the crisis, many developed countries are still opening doors for highly skilled workers via special programs. The U.S have the H1B visa program for talents people and within a matter of weeks, several thousand skilled workers completely fill up the allocated quota. England and Western Europe also have similar programs to make it easier for highly educated people to enter and work in their countries. Of course, all of this is dictated by the law of supply and demand and there will continue to be changes in job markets. If a country has a need for certain skills, it will allow more people with that skill to enter legally. As the U.S has high demand for software engineer and nurse, it has made it easier for people around the world with these skills to migrate to work in the U.S. In the past ten years, India and the Philippine are the two main suppliers of these skills to the U.S. According to the new study, the top 10 jobs that need foreign talent are:
1. Manufacturing skilled workers
2. Software Engineers
3. Production Operators
4. Computer Specialists
5. Information Technology Staff
6. Medical Doctors
7. Nurse and Medical Assistants
8. Customer Service Representatives
9. Medical Lab Technicians
10. Accounting & Finance Staff
The United Nations suggested that developing countries make it worthwhile for highly-trained people to stay by providing better working conditions and better compensation. Of course this suggestion is criticized by many people as “good in paper but not practical”. Another suggestion is to replace highly skilled people at a rate faster than their departure by improving the education systems to train more people. This suggestion is based on an academic study and also being criticized as “not practical, as people will go to wherever they can for better opportunities”. However, recently there is another phenomenon: The return of talent. This is the case that happens mostly in India and China as their economies improved, more and more skilled people are returning, especially in the software area. Almost 30% of software companies in India are founded or managed by returning software talents from oversea. China also reported that the number of returning software engineer in the past five years have exceeded the number of software engineer leaving the country. Let's hope that this trend will happen in other developing countries soon.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
