Top Countries For Global Brain Drain

Well, this is controversial. I don't know their methodology for doing this list but most would be in agreement with those making the shortlist. Before reading on, 101% of us would know for a certainty that Malaysia would make that list of top 10 countries. Is there a silver lining?

Well, you have to look really really hard ... one, is that we know its a problem and maybe we are "trying" to solve it (ok, stop rolling your eyeballs), two, that we even have "brains" to "drain"??!!



http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2011/07/10-countries-facing-the-biggest-brain-drain/

Brain drain, also known as human capital flight, is a serious issue in many parts of the world, as skilled professionals seek out work abroad rather than returning to work in their home country. Many are driven away by high unemployment, but issues like political oppression, lack of religious freedom and simply not being able to earn a big enough paycheck also play a significant role in exacerbating brain drain. The phenomenon is not only a serious economic issue (both in that the country loses workers and the money it put into training them in college), but one that often puts the health and safety of the nation’s citizens at risk, creating long-term and potentially disastrous results for countries with high brain drain rates spanning several decades.

Here we’ve compiled a list of some of the nations that have been hardest hit by brain drain in that past few years. While some are making progress in reversing the process, others are seeing numbers rise and citizens migrating in larger numbers every year. These nations, often those in the developing world, must make major economic and social changes if they hope to retain their best and most skilled workers over the long term.

1. Ethiopia: Ethiopia produces a large number of qualified professionals, especially in the medical field, but is experiencing one of the worst brain drains of any country in the world. Attracted by better prospects overseas and in other African nations and pushed out by political persecution, Ethiopia’s best and brightest haven’t been sticking around after graduation. A recent study presented at the National Symposium on Ethiopian Diasporas revealed some shocking numbers, with the country losing about 75% of its skilled professionals over the past ten years. This exodus of highly qualified professionals has had a huge impact on the country, leaving it with too few physicians, engineers and scientists to fill positions the country desperately needs to thrive economically.
2. Nigeria: Nigeria is another African nation that has suffered due to a massive brain drain. With much of Nigeria still essentially a developing nation with unreliable power and few resources, higher level science, engineering and medical professionals often find little to motivate them into staying, especially with job offers from the U.S. and European nations exerting a powerful pull. Since Nigeria’s brutal civil war in late 60s, the country has bounced between military governments and dictatorships, pushing out between 11 and 17 million people. Today, over 2 million Nigerians live in the U.S. alone, and of these about 20,000 are doctors and over 10,000 are academics. That’s a heavy loss for a nation that so desperately needs qualified professionals to rebuild and improve its own resources.
3. Kenya: High unemployment rates, lack of resources and other factors have made Kenya one of the top brain drain countries in Africa. With fewer than 30% of Kenyans who study overseas returning to work in Kenya, the nation is feeling the hurt of losing so many skilled professionals. The Kenyan Medical Association has warned that emigration of medical professionals may make it impossible to provide health care to the country’s residents – and the situation is already pretty dire. As of 2002, the public sector medical field had only 600 doctors and 70 dentists available to treat over 28 million citizens. With somewhere between 500,000 and 1.8 million Kenyans working and living overseas, the country is trying desperately to find a way to lure some of these citizens back home where their skills are much needed.
4. South Africa: Years of unrest, high crime rates, AIDS and lack of jobs have combined to make South Africa’s brain drain a serious problem. Over the past three years, the country has lost over 100,000 workers, with an additional 70% of skilled South Africans saying they are considering leaving the nation. Losing so many skilled workers has a ripple effect, with the loss of each skilled professional costing about 10 unskilled jobs. Currently, the country is working to not only keep residents from leaving once they’ve completed their training, but to also attract professionals from other nations to South African businesses. Though there is still a long way to go to make this a reality.
5. Iran: In 2006, the IMF ranked Iran the highest in brain drain among 90 countries (both developed and less developed), with over 180,000 people leaving each year due to a poor job market and oppressive social conditions. In fact, it is estimated that over 25% of Iranians with post-secondary degrees live and work abroad, adding up to a total of 4 million Iranians living overseas. While the outflux of Iranians was scoffed at in the early 80′s by government officials, today Iran is doing more to keep their skilled professionals at home, creating several national foundations aimed at improving the conditions for students in the sciences and increasing the number of graduate programs. Why pay attention now? Iran’s brain drain is estimated to cost the country over $50 billion each year in economic losses.
6. China: China has become a major player in global economics, but despite a rapidly growing job force, it is having trouble hanging on to qualified professionals. Many believe the reason lies in censorship and lack of freedoms (including the one child policy), but whatever the true cause, 70% of Chinese students who study overseas never return to their homeland. Since 1978, over 1 million Chinese students have headed to universities located abroad to get their degrees, yet fewer than 275,000 have returned. In fact, many foreign schools actually work to attract Chinese students, only exacerbating the problem for a nation in need of top scientists and researchers. The Chinese government has worked hard to reverse the trend, providing top-tier students in science and engineering with a large number of incentives, yet the numbers are only growing larger. By the end of this year, the nation could see well over 200,000 students leaving.
7. Mexico: Mexican immigration is a big issue in the U.S., with tens of thousands of illegal immigrants crossing U.S. borders each year. Yet a large portion of Mexican immigrants don’t fit this stereotype and are wealthy, well-educated and enter the country quite legally. Mexico is seeing a huge brain drain as more middle- and upper-class citizens move abroad, many who hold higher degrees and work in professional fields like medicine and law. The biggest cause for this is unemployment, with hundreds of thousands of skilled workers unable to find work, though security issues also play a big role. The higher the level of education, the less likely workers are to stay in Mexico, with about 70% of Mexicans with a PhD coming to work in America. The brain drain is worst in the sciences, where 79% of students who come to study in America never return home.
8. Jamaica: In a trend common for Caribbean nations, Jamaica faces one of the biggest brain drains in the region. Over 80% of Jamaica’s citizens who’ve obtained higher education live abroad. Most of this migration is due to lack of jobs, as there simply aren’t enough to go around for young graduates from university programs. What makes this loss so striking isn’t just the high percentage, but that Jamaican citizens who choose to work abroad must pay a remittance to the Jamaican government. Even with these additional fees, students aren’t enticed into staying to work in Jamaica. While much attention has been paid to the issue in recent years, little has changed and Jamaica. Along with Haiti, Suriname, Guyana and Grenada are losing between 70-90% of their college-educated force each year.
9. Malaysia: The brain drain in Malaysia has been steadily worsening, with the World Bank projecting it to intensify over the next few years. Currently, two out of every ten Malaysians with higher education seeks employment elsewhere, accounting for about 305,000 immigrants in 2009. There are a number of factors that contribute to this mass emigration, including job opportunities, political corruption and lack of religious freedom. Malaysia made big economic strides in the 90s, but growth has been halved in the past decade, slowing from 7.2% to just 4.6%. Experts believe this is largely due to brain drain, and caution that the nation could see serious economic issues if it doesn’t do something more to encourage professionals to work in their home country.
10. England: While it isn’t seeing staggering losses like many countries on this list, it is valuable to see how brain drain is a problem even in developed and relatively wealthy nations like Britain. Over the past few years, England has seen a large number of its skilled professionals leaving for work abroad, with over 1.1 million university graduates living and working outside of the country. This accounts for almost 1 in 10 skilled citizens choosing to emigrate. This mass emigration of skilled professionals may have serious ramifications for the British economy, as professionals add to the workforce of nations like Australia, Canada, America, France and Spain rather than at home. When compared to other developed nations, these numbers are especially high, with only Germany coming close in terms of losses (with 860,000 workers lost), making it clear that even top nations with good schools, public health and lots of resources can be subject to brain drain.

Malaysia’s Brain Drain: Government in Perpetual Denial

Written by Koon Yew Yin

Monday, 09 May 2011 14:07

Dr. Mahathir has derided the World Bank brain drain report as “useless and politically motivated”. The country should ignore his criticism as the ranting of a seriously flawed leader whose shelf life has expired and who has long lost his credibility to comment sensibly on any public policy subject. Prime Minister Najib Razak’s response has been equally disappointing. He must surely know – as any sane and reasonable person would – that the emigration of Malaysia’s highly educated and skilled has been disastrous and is an exodus the country can ill afford.

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Malaysia’s Brain Drain: Government in Perpetual Denial

For some years now, various analysts have written about the brain drain from Malaysia arising from the country’s racist policies. Now the World Bank has finally come out with a definitive report detailing that the number of skilled Malaysians living abroad has tripled in the last two decades with two out of every 10 Malaysians with tertiary education opting to leave for either OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries or Singapore.

The report also studied the factors that would entice Malaysian currently staying overseas to return. The top picks were a change in the country’s race-based policies and fundamental reforms in the public sector with “Paradigm shift away from race-based towards needs-based affirmative action” and “Evidence of fundamental and positive change in the government/public sector” receiving 87 and 82 per cent positive responses respectively.

The brain drain report mainly focused on the human capital outflow of migrants with tertiary level qualifications. If it had taken into account the out-migration of those with upper secondary and other desirable vocational and other skills, the human capital haemorrhage from the country arising from the New Economic Policy and other racially skewed policies would be far worse than the report’s findings show.

The Past and Present Prime Minister’s Responses

What has been the response to the report? Not surprisingly, the chief critic has been Dr. Mahathir who has derided the report as useless and politically motivated. As Dr. Mahathir has been the main architect of the socio-economic policies that have been responsible for the brain drain, his reaction is predictable. The country’s leadership and citizenry should ignore his criticism as the ranting of a seriously flawed leader whose shelf life has expired and who has long lost his credibility to comment sensibly on any public policy subject – whether this relates to the New Economic Model or human capital development - and especially if it concerns governance issues of which the former Prime Minister has been fundamentally compromised and incorrigibly irresponsible.

The present Prime Minister’s response has been guarded but no less disappointing. Dato Seri Najib Razak, whilst acknowledging that the brain drain is “one of the problems that must be resolved”, has pointed to the recent pickup in foreign direct investment to argue that the Bank report was not “quite correct”. The Prime Minister is grasping at straws to deny the undeniable. He must surely know – as any sane and reasonable person in the country would – that the emigration of Malaysian talents has been disastrous to the economy and is an exodus the country can ill afford.

He must also be aware that the outflow of another generation of young Malaysians (this time, including many Malays) is presently taking place and will continue unabated so long as racial (and religious) discrimination, and the self enrichment and political bankruptcy of the UMNO elite and its cronies, remain unchecked.

Incentives such as lowered income tax and other material or monetary sweeteners promised by the Talent Corporation are not the solution. They do not address the sense of not belonging, social injustice and lack of belief in the country’s future that are at the heart of why Malaysians have chosen to abandon the country of their birth, and to seek what - for most migrants - are less materially privileged but more psychologically fulfilling alien lands, despite being cut off from families and friends.

The Reverse Brain Gain

There is a key related topic which the World Bank report failed to deal with – the lower quality human capital inflow that has replaced the outflow of highly educated, skilled and talented Malaysians. During the past 30 odd years, there has been a massive officially sanctioned influx of migrants, especially from Indonesia and the Southern Philippines aimed at ensuring ethnic and religious dominance of the Malays. Millions of poor, uneducated, unskilled or semi skilled migrants have been permitted – rather, encouraged – to work and stay in Malaysia, thus offsetting the skilled brain drain with a cheap labour influx. According to the 2000 Census, 1.3 million or about 5.9 percent of Malaysia’s population of 21.9 million was comprised of foreigners. This estimate does not include other categories of non-citizens, such as permanent residents, spouses on a social visit pass, and stateless persons born in Malaysia. The latter number, of which there are no officially available figures, could bring the total number of non-citizens living in the country to close to 4 million or more.

Should the higher figure be used as the basis of calculation of the foreign component of the population, and even if the high birth rate of the Malay population were taken into account, it would imply that up to 25 per cent or one quarter of the country’s present total population are unskilled or semi-skilled migrants who have settled in Malaysia recently, especially since 1970. The influx of over 4 million lower quality human capital at the same time that over one million highly skilled Malaysians have left the country is probably unprecedented in the history of global migration flows (for a profile of the countries where Malaysians have moved to, see table below reproduced from Lee Wei Lian,“A Snapshot of Malaysia Talent Outflow”.)

I have no doubt that many recent migrants to Malaysia are hard working and good people, and deserve to have their rights protected. However, they would never have been allowed into the country or given easy access to citizenship in the normal circumstances of any other country in the world. What has made the difference has been a racially obsessed regime with a political agenda to artificially bolster the Bumiputra component of the population, and to provide that component with citizenship and voting rights aimed at ensuring Malay dominance of the government and country.

The pro-Nusantara cheap labour, easy assimilation (if the migrant is a Muslim or has no objections to “conversion”) policy of the last 30 years and its socio-economic costs and benefit needs to be studied by the World Bank team as a logical complement to the brain drain one. I have no doubt that should this lower level “brain gain” study be conducted, its findings will more fully explain the economic decline that the country has experienced. It will also expose fully the crude demographic numbers game that UMNO under Dr. Mahathir and his civil service underlings have engaged in to ensure continued Malay hegemony.

Ketuanan Melayu forever – the Perkasa slogan - is not a new one. It has been the bedrock of UMNO’s ideology since Dr. Mahathir came to power and will continue to be that way until the Malay population comes to its senses and realizes that the non-Malay communities are not their enemy – it is Malay political leaders that have failed them and are now looking for non-Malay scapegoats to explain why poor Malays have been left behind in the country’s socio-economic development.

Koon Yew Yin

9^th May 2011