scholarly journals Brain Drain and Brain Return: Theory and Application to Eastern-Western Europe

Author(s):  
Karin Mayr ◽  
Giovanni Peri

Abstract This paper develops a novel model of optimal education, migration and return by heterogeneous, forward-looking agents. The model is parameterized and simulated to analyze the effects of immigration policies, identifying the brain-drain, brain-gain and brain-return effects when barriers to migration are reduced. We use parameters from the literature to inform our model and simulate migration and return from middle-income to industrialized countries. In particular, we apply the model to study migration and return between Eastern and Western Europe. We find that, for plausible degrees of openness, the possibility of return migration combined with the education incentive channel turns the brain drain into a brain gain for Eastern Europe.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-145
Author(s):  
Woosik Yu

This paper analyzes the effect of the so-called ‘brain drain’ on economic growth through the channel of growth in total factor productivity. We analyze panel data that measure the severity of brain drain, which are from IMD and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Our analysis shows that middle-income countries have more brain drain compared to the group of high-income countries. Also, emerging economies that grow fast tend to experience more brain drain. Our results from fixed effects regression models show that that brain drain has a significant and positive impact on economic growth, and the main channel is productivity growth. This can be considered as evidence of the positive effects of ‘brain circulation’, which is one of the brain drain phenomena that settlement of the talents in advanced countries can eventually help improve the productivity of home country by the sharing of advanced technologies and skills around them with colleagues in motherland. Therefore, a strategy of utilizing overseas resident talents should also be considered, alongside the brain-attraction policy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 158
Author(s):  
Lajda Bana

The world of today which seeks globalization, while the economic inequality, corruption, political instability, and moreover wars prevail, it is always associated with the movement of people towards what might be called the ‘best for their future’. This movement is not just a mechanical action, but is a phenomenon associated with social, economic and political consequences not only to the country of origin but also for the host country. The departure of the people from their land is a well-known and proven phenomenon mainly of the developing countries. This phenomenon includes also the so-called brain drain emigration, the departure of skilled people, professionals and researchers from their own country to other places. The brain drain is not only a phenomenon that belongs to developing countries, or former communist states, or those countries in war, but it can also affect the developed Western countries. Brain drain does not always constitute a brain gain in the host country. In most of the cases, people who have to leave the countries in political instability or former communist countries, even if they are qualified and holders of university degrees, they are obliged to work in humble jobs which can be simply exercised by persons without university qualifications. Consequently, the brain drain phenomenon is not automatically turned into a benefit 'brain gain' for the host country; on the contrary, it might even be turned into the so-called brain-waste. A social challenge in this context remains the turn of "brain drain" into "brain gain" or "brain circulation". Therefore, one of the current priorities for governments is to create effective economic and social conditions which would enhance the integration of the graduates, researchers and professionals into their national and regional markets


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 140
Author(s):  
Quah Chun Hoo ◽  
Siti Rohaida M. Zainal ◽  
Guok Eng Chai

Despite the huge allocation on funds and attention channeled towards solving the brain drain issue by the Malaysian government, this issue is still far from being resolved. Agencies such as Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), Malaysian Development Corporation (MDC) and others have been established to try to lure back our top talents from abroad. MOSTI launched its first brain gain programme in 1995 till 2000, which successfully attracted 94 scientists, of whom only one remains in Malaysia. The second brain gain scheme which was implemented from 2001 to 2004 was intended to attract 5000 talents a year. Unfortunately, only 200 took advantage of the offer. Then, to better coordinate the plan, Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad was established under the Prime Minister’s Department with the objective of wooing foreign talent and overcoming the barriers for them to settle down in Malaysia, among others (Starbizweek, 2011b). Unfortunately, the reception to these initiatives is far from encouraging. Even though the study on brain drain is not new among researchers; in Malaysia, empirical studies on this issue is still limited. Drawing on the push and pull factors identified by previous researchers, this paper attempts to conceptualize which of these factors have the greatest potential of influencing the return intentions of Malaysia’s top talents working abroad. Proposing two propositions, these conceptual papers then analyzes related articles on the facts about brain drain. The implications of this paper are discussed from two perspectives namely are from the company as well as from the country perspectives. In conclusion, this paper manages to highlight the push and the pull factors influencing brain drain phenomenon in Malaysia.


1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gil Loescher

In recent years, political asylum and refugees have become acute issues in public debate in Western Europe and North America. The debate has become especially heated since 1989 and the breaching of barriers between Eastern and Western Europe, with East Germans, Albanians, Romanians, and Yugoslavs all trying to move west. Most asylum-seekers continue to come from the Third World. Those who manage to enter the West face growing hostility, poverty, and even violent attacks. In France immigration has already shifted political discourse sharply to the right, testing the nation's tolerance toward foreigners and shaking its liberal foundations. Xenophobia and brutal physical attacks on foreigners by skinheads and extreme right-wingers throughout Germany have caused politicians in Bonn to reconsider their country's asylum provisions. Governments everywhere appear reluctant to open their doors when they are not sure how many will benefit from their hospitality and for how long. To many industrialized countries, asylum-seekers are perceived mostly as economic migrants in search of a better life. Actual migratory pressures from the South and perceived threats of exodus from the East have only served to reinforce this restrictive attitude to asylum. The refugee problem has reached such a critical point that the very institution of asylum is being threatened.


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