Caribbean to Study Skilled Worker Loss

The Caribbean Community will facilitate a study to examine the impact of an economic migration of the region's best educated workers to wealthier nations, an official with the 15-nation bloc says.

The study, to be completed by researchers at the University of the West Indies, will document an ongoing pattern of "brain drain" that has resulted in middle-class workers decamping to higher-paying jobs in the United States, Europe, and Canada, according to Barbadian Education Minister Anthony Wood.

Wood, who made the comments after a meeting of Caricom ministers, said the exodus of skilled professionals can prove particularly damaging in professions such as education but likely impedes regional development in a variety of ways.

A recent study by the International Monetary Fund estimated that the Caribbean was losing up to 40 percent of its most skilled professionals _ with many of those leaving high-skilled jobs in education, medicine, and law.

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