How Brain-Drain affects World Economics

What is Brain-Drain? How does it happen? Why does it happen? What are its consequences? How can we control it? Let's answer all these questions.

Looking at the map above, we can clearly see that developing "global-south" countries suffer the most by Brain-Drain, while the developed "global-north" countries are cherishing this "Brain-Gain". Let us understand this further in depth.

In easy words, Brain-Drain is the process of migration of well-educated and productive workforce of a country, when they leave their home country to live in another country, in search of better opportunities. Generally this migration is from poor countries to rich countries.

There are many reasons for Brain-Drain, including more salary, desired opportunities, improved lifestyle, escaping violence/war, less pollution, less crowding, better laws, and many more.

For example, a Data Analyst from India may earn 10x more in the UK for the same job he does in India. A Nigerian girl who dreams to be a space traveler must move to the US as she can get a better opportunity in NASA. Many working people have moved to Poland from Ukraine to escape the war. A Bangladeshi worker may migrate to the gulf to escape the pollution and overcrowding in his home country. A Chinese teacher may move to Europe to escape the strict authoritarian laws in China.

There are many negative consequences of Brain-Drain on the poor countries. Firstly, they lose a significant chunk of their workforce, and mostly the best chunk of their workforce, to the rich countries. Also these people migrate at a time when they stop being a liability and become an asset. The home country invests in their living and education, then the developed country enjoys the returns of that investment when they migrate for a job. This is almost heartbreaking for the poor home country.

On the other side, rich countries enjoy the positive consequences of this "Brain-Gain". They get the returns of the investment those poor countries did on the migrants. They also bring in money from their home countries which they will now spend in their new country on buying/renting a home, buying furniture, food and energy, which contributes in pacing up the economy of the rich country. Rich countries can also control the intake of these workers in different fields according to their needs, by controlling the issuance of the work visas.

In addition to this, Brain-Drain also helps in filling the gaps in the workforce of the rich countries as they usually have low percentage of young population and high percentage of elderly population which is no longer in the workforce. Overall, we can say that Brain-Drain further intensifies the economic inequality in the world, that is, it makes rich countries richer and poor countries poorer.

So, is there any solution to all this? Well, it is almost impossible to completely stop Brain-Drain, but still there are many things developing countries can do to control it to some extent. Broadly, the developing countries must try to eliminate the reasons of Brain-Drain to control it. These countries must invest in industries that create good employment opportunities so that the workforce does not feel the need to migrate. They should also ensure that high salaries and pleasant working conditions are maintained in these industries. They should also improve the enforcement of law to control violence, crime and corruption in the country. They should also work towards improving the living conditions and controlling pollution.

All these measures may sound simple, but they are not. One needs very strong political will and perseverance to achieve these goals. But these are also not impossible and must be taken into consideration. The governments of these developing countries must act now and follow these measures in order to control this migration and help their economy transform from developing to a developed one.