Developmental economics Essay

Brain drain which is also known as the human capital flight, which can simply be defined mass migration of technically skilled people from one country to another country. In more simple words brain drain refers to the departure of skilled and educated people, like doctors, engineers, accountants, economists, scientists from one country to another to seek better life opportunities. Developing nations like Pakistan is badly suffering from brain drain. According to official estimates of Pakistan’s Overseas Employment Corporation, close to 36,000 professionals, including doctors, engineers and teachers, have migrated to other countries in the last 30 years. This report is based on the brain drain which has taken Pakistan aback, because of the very mass migration in the last few years. The background is given first which explains what brain drain really is. Then further the introduction is given which tells which parts of the world are affected by the brain drain and which ones are benefited by the brain gain. In the literature review part, different articles are summarized which gives us the detailed information about the current situation of brain drain in Pakistan and other developing countries. The last but the important part is the analysis in which all the articles are analyzed and then suggestions are given. Introduction: In the history there are many examples of brain drain. The brain drain initially started in 1492 when Jews were expelled after the catholic re conquest of Spain. As the Jews were dominating financial services in the country, so their migration caused future economic problems in Spain. This was the first brain drain which happened in the history. In 1685 we get an example of a huge brain drain with estimates ranging from 200,000 to 1000,000 in France, where the king Louis XIV forced the Protestants to walk out of the country. The migration of Protestants, who were technically skilled, was a huge loss from which the kingdom could not recover for many years. In 1930’s the law in Europe caused the migration of many scientists to US. Albert Einstein was one of the migrating ones, who permanently migrated to us from Germany in 1933. Brain drain is common among developing Asian nations: India, Pakistan, Middle East countries like Iran and Iraq, African countries etc. In contrast developed countries like USA, Canada, and UK etc have brain gain from this happening. Brain drain usually affects the developing or under developing countries due to mass migration of technically skilled people to developed countries, which in turn are benefited by the brain gain. In the recent years, developing country Pakistan has suffered a lot from the brain drain. Philip Bonosky, who writes in his book ‘Washington secret war against Afghanistan† that Pakistan, is the only country who has suffered from the brain drain to a great extent. The graduates migrate in order to get jobs, because nearly 3000 fresh graduates are jobless yearly. Number of Pakistanis migrating to different countries is increasing every year, and most of the migrating people are educated, either doctors, engineers, or other professionals who has no hope of better career in Pakistan. Not only the professionals but also the workers and labor also want to go abroad for higher pays. The brain drain is usually a problem in the poor countries like Pakistan, with very unstable economic situations. Poor people usually suffers because they do not earn enough to serve their families, which eventually leads to migrate to the developed countries, who offers them incentives and higher pays which can improve their living standards. Literature review: According to Dodani and Laporte’s article, the health care migrations to the developed countries are from the developing countries, especially south Asia. This migration is a growing concern in the developing countries because such an outflow of medical doctors from these countries has an adverse affect on health of the population of home countries of the migrants. Dodani and Laporte also points out that the developing countries are working hard to apply such policies which can slow down the migrations, but they say that this might not be possible because of unstable economic and political situations of the home country. Dodani and Laporte also claim that the main cause of the migration is the huge difference in the pays that the doctors receive in the source country and the destination country. According to the article the Pakistani doctorates are not awarded for their good performance, which make them migrate to developed countries. Dodani and Laporte suggests that the developed countries needs to find out the major reasons behind the mass migration and needs to resolve their security problems and provide the doctorates with opportunities in future. According to the research paper by Jenkins R, Kydd R, Mullen P, Thomson K, Sculley J, et al, huge numbers of psychiatrists who are working in the developed countries are from the poor or developing countries, including Pakistan. They mentioned a survey conducted by World Psychiatric Association Taskforce on brain drain regarding the reason for the migration of psychiatrists, and the survey showed that the main reason was the lack of multidisciplinary approach and the poor treatment conditions of the patients. The researchers also pointed out that the health workers also have the right to lead a better life, give proper education to their children. The lack of the economic and political stability and the lack of better living conditions the health workers have no other option other then migration. The researcher mentioned the frequent argument done regarding brain drain that the poor countries also gain form the remittance that the migrants send back to the source countries. So the researchers argue hat the loss of one health worker is much larger then the gain of remittance, which is not given to the poor people of the country, rather is sent to the family which is already better off. According to Mullen, MD’s article, the Indian subcontinent which includes Pakistan is the main source of physician for the recipient countries. According to the article, International medical graduates constitute between 23 and 28 percent of the physician workforces of the recipient countries, with lower-income countries contributing between 40. 0 percent (in Australia) and 75. 2 percent (in the United Kingdom) of the international medical graduates in recipient countries Mullen claims that the subcontinent, which is India and Pakistan is badly affected by the brain drain, Mullen argues that, although the source country is benefited from the payments that the migrants send to their country but yet it adversely affects the situation back in their country. It affects their own nation’s ability to survive due to lack of physicians in their country. According to Saracen’s article, the labor in developing nations are paid less because of the majority being unskilled, due to which the skilled labor also suffers by getting lower pays which makes them migrate to other countries in order to get higher pays and better standards of living. According to the article, the brain drain has an adverse affect because the home country spends a lot on educating and training the individuals, who then migrate and benefit the developed countries that have not spent a penny on their education. Saracen’s argues that the Developing countries, such as Pakistan suffers from brain drain due to lack of infrastructure, whereas the Developed Countries benefits from the process. Saracen’s suggests that the government should make future planning regarding the improvement of living standards and properly allocate the societies abilities.