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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
The Brain Drain from Poor Countries to Rich
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Human Development Report 1992
The Brain Drain from Poor Countries to Rich
</hdr>
<body>
<p> Developing countries lose thousands of skilled people each
year--engineers, doctors, scientists, technicians. Frustrated
by low pay and limited opportunities at home, they head for
richer countries where their talents can be better applied--and better rewarded.
</p>
<p> The problem is partly overproduction. Education systems in
developing countries are often modelled in the requirements of
industrial countries, and train too many high-level graduates.
Somalia produces around five times more graduates than the
country can employ. And in Cote d'Ivoire, up to 50% of
graduates are unemployed.
</p>
<p> Industrial countries certainly profit from immigrants'
skills. Between 1960 and 1990, the US and Canada accepted more
than one million professional and technical immigrants from
developing countries. The US education system is particularly
dependent on them. In engineering institutions in 1985, an
estimated half of the assistant professors under 35 were
foreign. Japan and Australia too, have tried to attract skilled
migrants.
</p>
<p> This loss of skilled workers represents a severe haemorrhage
of capital. The US Congressional Research Service estimated
that in 1971-72 the developing countries as a whole lost an
investment of $20,000 in each skilled migrant--$646 million in
total. Some of this returns as remittances but not on a scale to
compensate for the losses.
</p>
<p> Some countries may have more educated people than they can
use, but others are losing desperately needed skills. In Ghana,
60% of doctors trained in the early 1980s are now abroad--leaving critical shortages in the health service. And Africa as
a whole is estimated to have lost up to 60,000 middle and high-
level managers between 1985 and 1990.
</p>
<p> The major responsibility for reducing such losses lies with
the developing countries. They need to tailor their education
systems more closely to their practical needs and improve the
management of their economies. But for that, they also need
better access to international markets.
</p>
<p>Source: United Nations Development Programme
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>