Brain Seek and Brain Chase: an attempt to complete the story of why highly skilled migrants leave their countries and what can be done about it.

Like many of you reading this article, over the years I’ve read a lot of literature and seen a lot being discussed about ‘Brain Drain’ and ‘Brain Gain’ with regards to the movement of highly skilled migrants around the world. Who gains from whom when highly skilled migrants move from one country to another has been well documented and is not the focus of this article.

By Hinsley Njila

However, I think it’s important to focus on why highly skilled workers move in the first place as a critical piece of this migration debate. Brain Drain and Brain Gain although very smart and descriptive concepts devised by highly paid consultants to define the situation, in my humble opinion do not tell the complete story.

There are very complex reasons why highly skilled migrants would move from one country to another, and while words or catch phrases like those described in this article are an attempt to describe or explain the treatment of migrants, they should not be read as completely describing the problem. Brain Seek and Brain Chase, both phrases that I coined, are attempts to add elements that seek a better understanding of this complex phenomenon at what in my view has been an incomplete debate thus far.

Brain Seekä

For the better part of the last decade, I’ve informally surveyed the so-called highly skilled migrant group in many parts of the world where I’ve been. It occurred to me at some point during this informal experiment as I talked to so many people around the world that all things being equal, most migrants would prefer to practice their trade in their country of birth because of a number of reasons top of which are cultural and political familiarity. So if this is true, although people are leaving their countries in what has been record numbers in recent times, they’d much prefer to be in their countries where they have an emotional connection to the language, people, culture etc. If governments were truly serious about limiting the movements of migrants, this argument offers a clue on what needs to be done.

Developing countries like China, India, now Botswana, Tanzania, Ghana and others have done their research and in more ways that are evident are ‘seeking’ out migrants from their respective countries or other countries who can contribute skills to their development goals. It’s been well documented for instance that in the United States, Chinese embassies maintain lists of Chinese students in highly sought after doctoral fields, and is in constant contact with them to present them with opportunities to go back to China upon graduation by taking advantage of this emotional connection.

Countries with a clear path for the future have begun recruiting talent to help them devise strategies and implement steps on the road map to that goal. Developing countries should be falling over each other for talent around the world. Governments of developing countries should be sending representatives to top Western Universities and paying premium money to recruit top professors that can travel to their countries to teach critical subjects in business, economics, engineering, law, mathematics, and others. This should be in addition to helping their top talent get into these Universities and giving them the opportunity to practice their trade free of government cohesion in their respective countries upon graduation.

It should be worth noting here that private industry in Botswana, China, India, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa among a few smart developing economies have already begun ‘seeking’ talent from among migrants who graduate from western Universities.

Human capital development in my view should be the primary focus for all international aid to developing countries. Experts like Garry Becker of the University of Chicago and Robert Barro of Harvard among others have spent their carriers showing how developing human capital helps lift countries out of poverty.

Brain Chaseä

History books are filled with stories of highly skilled migrants ‘chased’ from their countries by insecure dictators who live in a state of constant paranoia. Who hasn’t read stories of Jews that were chased from Germany by Hitler and the Nazis, and I might add some of who went on to be Nobel Laureates by contributing important scientific discoveries that changed humankind. Had Hitler not ‘chased’ away the Jews, it is possible most of their discoveries would be credited to the Germans. How about Wole Soyinka exiled from Nigeria because of his views; and millions of others for whom dictators have made earning a living in their countries and contributing to social and economic development with their skills nearly impossible.

How is this not a central part of the migration debate, in my opinion truly defies logic. Doingbusiness.org, an annual publication by the UN describes in great detail how difficult it is to start a business, pay taxes among other things in some developing countries. When compared with others, it’s no coincidence that some of the countries at the bottom of the ranking are those losing the bulk of their skilled workers to those at the top. I truly believe that as countries carry out reforms that permit highly skilled migrants to easily open businesses, pay taxes, employ workers and achieve their life’s dream, there’ll be less of a need for them to leave their countries for long periods of time.

Travel to countries like Cameroon, Sudan, Chad and others; I recon most of the physicians, accountants, lawyers, and others you talk to would be asking you for the easiest way for them to leave their countries to practice somewhere where it was easier for them to do so. At a time when because of severe economic hardships and millions of people losing their jobs in western countries, sentiments against highly skilled migrants is at an all-time high, to see that people are still willing to come to western countries despite these sentiments to me sends a powerful message about management in their countries.

Anyone who cares about issues of poverty and economic development in developing countries understands that human capital development cannot be ignored as one of the solutions to these very complex problems. To me, educating people who cannot return to their countries of birth and practice their trade because of inept dictators who fail to implement reforms is of very little economic value, just as is not having a future development plan and seeking out talent capable of executing such a plan. I do not claim to completely define the problems with these words that I’ve coined, but I have peeled off another layer to help us understand the complex reasons that explain by people are willing to drop everything they are familiar with and move to sometimes hostile environments to practice the skills they’ve spent a lifetime developing. We should not only focus on ‘Brain Drain ‘and ‘Brain Gain’ which are important, although they focus mainly on the roles played by western countries in the migration debate.