Brain drain Brain gain: the different perspectives

1
Brain drain / Brain gain the different
perspectives

• Stéphan Vincent-LancrinOECD/CERI
• Unesco/OECD Australia Forum on
• Trade in educational services

2
Cross-border education is increasingly
migration-related

• OECD countries use it to attract skilled workers
  and scientists (skilled migration approach and
  revenue-generating approach)
• Individuals use it to emigrate following their
  studies abroad, the acquisition of a foreign
  degree at home, and sometimes a domestic degree
  (post-docs, etc.)
• USA 25 of temporary visa holders were enrolled
  in US universities

3
Evidence of an increase in migration flows of
highly skilled workers since the 1990s

• Evidence in Japan number of highly skilled
  workers visas delivered has risen by 70 between
  1992 and 1999
• 75 of Chinese students who studied overseas
  between 1978 and 1999 failed to return
• USA 85.9 UK 53.2
• Japan 62.6 France 52.4
• Australia 55.1

4
Stay rates of 1996 PhD holders in the USA in 2001
5
Brain exchange or brain drain?

• Brain exchange stresses that they are benefits
  for both receiving and sending countries
• Brain drain (gain) stresses that there is a net
  loss (gain) in the short run for a country
• It is very difficult to assess
• What is the opportunity cost of this loss?
• Would the tertiary-level graduates have
  contributed more to the development of their
  country by staying than they do by staying abroad?

6
What are the costs and benefits of skilled
migration for the sending countries?

• Costs
• Loss on investment (if they have financed the
  schooling)
• Loss of qualified human capital (and thus
  productivity)
• Benefits
• Investment
• Remittances
• Business links enabling the sending country to
  participate in international networks
• Migration back with international experience

7
Factors influencing a reversal of brain drain

• Countries have very different attitudes towards
  brain exchange
• Some countries (e.g. India, Malaysia, China)
  dont consider the emigration of their skilled
  workers as a problem while others do (e.g.
  African and Caribbean countries)
• Political factors
• Cultural factors
• Economic factors
• Opportunities in the home country (labour market
  but also growth)
• Strength of the sector in which they have
  expertise

8
Cross-border education and brain drain

• Cross-border education can facilitate brain drain
• BUT
• New forms without student mobility might be less
  conducive to permanent emigration
• Cross-border education can help build capacity
  and thus to reverse brain drain
• (Labour and Business) Opportunities in the
  economy
• Opportunities in academia
• Better quality of academia, becoming more
  competitive (and thus attractive) compared to
  foreign acdemia