Brain Drain: Views from Around the World

Ohio and Greater Cleveland are not the only places concerned about brain drain. This article contains some excerpts from various news stories from around the world on the subject. Because I know that many of you will want to cut to the chase, I have put my conclusions up front and presented the examples of brain drain across the world after the conclusions.

Some Insights and Possible Answers

No matter where you are, brain drain is perceived as an concern. These news clips point to the ubiquitous nature of the "brain drain" problem that has Ohio and Greater Cleveland officials in a tizzy. What does this conclusion point up? Here are a few additional ideas that may contribute to a better possible solution:

1. Most places experiencing brain drain see it as a problem impacting their economic development potential. Most believe they need to do more to improve their local environment to retain and attract people with knowledge and skills. In many ways, this is true. At the same time, we need to be sensitive to our existing talent and ensure that we offer them the same opportunities as we offer newcomers. I believe in the final analysis, the answer to this problem rests in helping everyone advance themselves and renew their knowledge and skills on a regular basis. One bit of advice: Avoid potential bidding wars that cause us to overpay for talent of any type. That is a major problem in economic development today. Don't replicate this problem in the high-talent labor market. Do we really want to emulate the salary strategies found in professional sports or Hollywood today?

2. Brain drain is an issue for both developed and developing nations alike. Both see it as a growing concern. Foreign countries sending their best and brightest to American universities want these people back once they graduate. Once again, this is a global problem, and we need to be aware of this as we fashion solutions. Avoid the "us-versus-them" mindset about this problem.

3. Many places have recently implemented possible solutions to the problem. For most, it is too soon to tell whether these efforts are working. We should pay close attention to what Canada, the UK, and other places are doing in this area.

4. Even though this problem has evolved over a long time period, those places making an effort to stem their "talent loss" have resorted to short-term fixes, such as using incentives to slow their losses. Marketing and financial incentives seem most common. We need to mount a long term plan to ensure that we have more talent coming in then is flowing outward. We do not need to erect "trade barriers" that limit people's personal mobility. "Open-system" models that allow sufficient in and out flows will be the wave of the future, IF we can solve our current security concerns. If we do not, then many of our currently open systems may become more closed--especially in the immigration arena.

5. Most places with this problem seem to believe they have to fix the problem themselves, rather than working with other places to find solutions. I believe more attention should be given to "partnered solutions." Maybe the "shared talent pool" concept could have application to this problem. Knowledge is becoming increasingly global. We must recognize this reality. While we must remain aware of how the export of U.S. technology and knowledge can and will be used against us, we also need to be mindful of necessity of working together to solve a complex problem like this one.

6. I think it is possible that places facing this problem are either unwilling or unable to see four very fundamental trends (tendencies) that cut across cultures worldwide:

- People want to make a better life for themselves and their families, and they believe they must exercise their "best" options in accomplishing this goal. In many cases, that means doing exactly what their forefathers did: "Move to another place." As many have said, history does have a tendency to repeat itself at times.

- "Place" still plays a fundamental role in shaping people's sense of meaning and purpose in life. If where they live and work adds to this sense in a positive way, they stay. If it doesn't, they leave.

- Loyalty is a tough thing to find in the world today. Employees do not believe their employers are loyal to them. Employers do not believe that their employees are loyal to them. Community officials do not think their "best and brightest" are loyal to them. The "best and brightest" feel in many cases that current community leaders have betrayed them, hoarded all the seed corn for themselves, and have not been unwilling to allow new leaders to assume the reins.

- Finally, this is a very uncertain and risky time that we live in. We need to recognize the emotional mood of the populace. Fear about the economy, a possible war, terrorism and many other things are very much realities for all of us. Maybe the leading future source of competitive advantage for economic development will be to offer a higher "certainty factor" for people. Maybe those places that do a better job of "managing risk" will prove to be the winners in the future. How well are Ohio and Greater Cleveland doing in these departments?

Signs of a Worldwide Problem

This section contains clips from various world news articles about brain drain.

"Brain drain and a bevy of aging companies particularly in the manufacturing sector are two of the biggest obstacles to growth in Wisconsin's economy, a Federal Reserve Bank senior economist told 400 business, association and civic leaders gathered in Downtown Madison on Thursday." Source: Wisconsin State Journal, 2/14/03.

"The prospect of higher tuition fees in England has led to a surge in the number of students thinking about studying in the US and fears of an undergraduate brain drain." Source: The Australian, 2/12/03.

"From Mr Francis Davis Sir, Faced with the choice between a struggling British university and the intellectual power and cultural stimulation of the Ivy League, or for that matter Witswatersrand, Australian National, McGill, the Sorbonne or Beijing, we will not do our best by our children by encouraging them to opt for second-class facilities and faculty." Source: The Times, London, 2/7/03.

"As the aging work force approaches retirement, NASA has been left scrambling to attract and keep young talent. The average age at NASA is 45. Among those in the agency's crucial science and engineering fields, the ranks of employees older than 60 outnumber those younger than 30 almost 3 to 1. Roughly a quarter of workers are eligible to retire within the next five years. The years of cutbacks have created a so-called "brain drain." Source: Orlando Sentinel, 2/7/03.

"The education brain drain is particularly hurting large country schools in South Australia that are commonly short on specialists and must call on relief teachers to cover classes." Source: The Australian, 1/29/03.

"We are a welcoming country, a melting pot for immigrants, a society predicated on social openness and mobility. These values are at the heart of our democracy. They are also key to our continued market growth and dominance in the global economy. Economists attribute part of the unprecedented growth to the influx of a new labor supply. In contrast, countries that are not as willing as the United States to absorb new immigrants are suffering population implosion as well as brain drain. For example, Germany would have to grow its immigration rate by a factor of 20, and Japan by a factor of 50, to maintain the size of their current populations." Source: Centre Daily Times, 1/26/03.

"As for Frank Stronach's comments on lowering taxes to reduce the brain drain, studies have questioned that relationship. I also don't think Canada needs bright people who are simply concerned about keeping more of their paycheques. We need people who appreciate the role of good government and the fact that historically, our higher rates of taxation enabled us to sustain one of the highest standards of living in the world." Letter to the Editor, Toronto Star, 1/23/03.

"Give young Jordanians a fair chance to start their lives and careers in Jordan, first! Too many Jordanian professionals have given up on finding decent and well paying jobs in their own country and are desperate to leave-many of them for good. Let's not kid ourselves. Brain drain is endemic to Jordan as water shortages are in August." Source: The Star, Jordan, 1/15/03.

"Colombians call it their "fuga de cerebro," or "brain drain."Over the past decade, thousands of people from the upper and middle classes have fled civil war and a severe economic recession for life in the United States." Source: The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C., 12/16/02.

"Strain of the Brain Drain: Thousands of young educated Slovaks are leaving the country every year to work abroad, even though there are enough good jobs for them at home." Source: Slovak Spectator, 12/16/02.

"America's move to shut the spigot on student visas after Sept. 11 has created a brain drain for universities that rely on top foreign students to help with scientific research." Source: Dallas Morning Star, 11/28/02.

"A seven-county Northwest Indiana planning group this week issued a compact to build these partnerships as they moved into the implementation phase, culminating a year-long study of work force needs. Committees announced target dates for programs to begin. The plan aims to better prepare young people for the world of work, train the current work force for upward movement, diversify the local economy and stem the problem of "brain drain," where graduates move elsewhere for high-paying jobs." Source: Munster Indiana Times, 11/23.02.

"A target of 2,000 research chairs by 2005 was the federal government's response two years ago to the brain drain, as reports mounted of top science and medical researchers abandoning Canada for more pay and better laboratories, mostly in the United States." Source: Toronto Star, 11/22/02.

"Just 1 percent of Tuolumne County has access to high-speed Internet connections via phone lines, and community leaders give their county a D+ grade for e-commerce, according to a report to be released Wednesday. That would help stop the "brain drain" of talented young people who move away to get better jobs, Lanthier said. Tuolumne County has a long way to go when it comes to high-tech telecommunication systems." Source: Modesto, CA Bee, 11/09/02.

"Bakersfield business leaders must develop more high-tech career opportunities and better-paying jobs if they hope to keep the best and brightest workers from leaving town. You've got to try and reverse brain drain, DeVol said. You've got to reach out to the students who are leaving to see what it would take to bring 'em back." Source: Bakersfield Californian, 11/01/02.

"Brain drain" cost the University of Arizona a Nobel Wednesday. Vernon L. Smith spent much of his career at the UA, but won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science yesterday at George Mason University -- just a year after being lured there by more money and research support." Source: Arizona Daily Star, 10/10/02.

"Two years ago, A. Chaedar Alwasilah, a senior lecturer in Bandung, wrote in this newspaper that improving higher education should account for geographical disparities, which have led to an increasing brain drain for the home provinces. It is therefore understandable, he continued, that most regions are unprepared for regional autonomy. Improvement should hence be more of a priority in universities outside Java." Source: Jakarta Post, 10/05/02.

"At the same time, the Taiwanese Government realised that it was facing a brain drain and started to provide numerous benefits to lure back its nationals, especially those involved in information and communications technology." New Straits Time, 10/01/02.

"A LEADING British businessman advised Scottish schoolchildren to leave their homeland before its self-centered and parochial attitudes stifled their careers. Don Cruickshank, the Scottish-born head of the London Stock Exchange and chairman of the SMG media group, told pupils at his former school in Aberdeen that a move away would provide them with a vigour for professional life that was not evident in Scotland. Politicians and business leaders accused Mr Cruickshank of arrogance, being out of touch with modern Scotland and encouraging a brain drain." Source: The Times, London, 9/21/02.

"That makes Signorelli a poster child for the nascent multi-pronged effort to stop the so-called "brain drain" of high-tech college graduates out of Indiana. The goal is simple: Get students working inside technology companies through internships, and they will be more likely to come back after graduation." Source: The Indianapolis Star, 9/10/02.

"How do you get college students to stay in the Philadelphia area when the whole world beckons? Why, show them the sights. That's what the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce has been doing this summer in an effort to stop the "brain drain" -- the loss of some of the best and brightest students to other regions. State figures show Pennsylvania lost more than 20,000 college graduates ages 20 to 29 between 1995 and 1997, the most recent period for which figures are available. Called PhilaSPIN, the program involves 171 students from 25 area employers and is funded with a $25,000 state grant." Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/9/02.

"Under the project, highly trained academics from the Democratic Republic of Congo who used their skills to escape to the West are being paid to go home for short stints and to transfer their knowledge to today's students. As the brain drain leaches Africa of its intellectual riches, the scheme ensures that a few drops trickle back." Source: The Times, London, 8/7/02.

"It's happening in all fields from graphic arts to finance, though most of the stories I hear involve makeup artists, stylists and others in the fashion and beauty realm. They are bringing home with them such impressive experience, knowledge and connections that it will be fascinating to see where it all leads. Let's call this reverse brain drain "the brain gain." Source: Toronto Star, 7/4/02.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia should develop decent living standards for its citizens to prevent so-called 'brain drain." Source: Interfax, 5/22/02.

Article Abstract: "Discusses the so-called brain drain of technology employees from East Asia to the region known as Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara County, California. Results of a survey which suggests that it is common for immigrants to export their experience back to their homeland, often in the form of start-up companies or investments; Spread of American entrepreneurial culture in Asia; Idea that the complex labor ties and economic relationship between Silicon Valley and East Asia is beneficial to both sides." Source: NY Times, 4/19/02.

"Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., on Wednesday renewed his call to develop a "research corridor" in the Red River Valley, similar to the famous Research Triangle in North Carolina. Dorgan said North Dakota is losing too many young people to states with traditionally well-funded research schools, where high-paying jobs are plentiful. He wants to reverse that brain drain by attracting more federal funding to UND and North Dakota State University in Fargo so research centers of excellence can be developed." Source: Grand Forks Herald, 1/03/02.

"The brain drain from Canada to the United States is small, but a disproportionate number of those leaving are among the country's most talented and best-paid individuals, according to a new study." Source: Toronto Star, 11/28/01.

"Kentucky started getting serious about its "brain drain" in 1999 when it discovered that 70 percent of the alumni of its prestigious Governor's Scholars program had left the state." Source: Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, KY, 9/7/01.

"Economic growth and development require many things but gradually it has crystallized that even with ample resources a country will not be able to climb up the economic ladder if it fails to develop human resources and to exploit such resources or add value to them. Therefore, the selection of human resources development as policy is nothing wrong. But the concern is, to what extent the policy is bearing fruit in the context of the unchecked brain drain in Bangladesh.

"The government is providing massive subsidies to create technically able manpower. But ultimately, such manpower is lost to the country and the resources prove to be wasteful because of brain drain. He pointed out that the country's premier technical institution, the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) produces annually well qualified engineers, but cannot keep them in the country as they go abroad never to return. An engineering student at BUET pays as little as Tk164 as tuition fees - thanks to subsidized education - whereas the same student would need to spend at least Tk 100,000 per semester for the same degree in a private university." Source: The Independent, Bangladesh, 8/8/01.