The Main Causes Of Brain Drain in Developing Countries
Brain drain is the migration of skilled and well educated human resources from least developed and developing countries to developed countries in search of better employment opportunities. This migration has resulted in deficits in human resources in essential sectors within the developing countries. There are many reasons why these laborers shift from their countries. These include:
- High unemployment rates. Many developing countries have high unemployment rates and the numbers of youth who are educated yet unemployed continues to escalate. This is possibly because of high populations and less resources as well as opportunities for employment. Ultimately, this has led many skilled and educated workers to move from their countries to foreign nations which are more developed and offer more opportunities for employment.
- Political instability and high levels of insecurity. Instability and insecurity always hinder development in countries affected and this causes laborers to migrate from developing countries into developed countries which tend to have more politically stable economies.
- Poor working conditions. Developing countries have poor working conditions. Their regulatory frameworks regarding laborers are often poor. This results in high exploitation of the workers in these countries. It also causes disgruntlement among such workers. To exacerbate this situation, most companies especially the public ones, have poor or no equipment and this demotivates the workers. This contributes heavily to the immigration to the more developed countries which have strict and healthy labor laws that protect workers and are technologically advanced to ease working activities.
- Poor remuneration and compensation for skilled laborers. Poor remuneration and compensation benefits have discouraged many skilled and educated employees in the developing world. Despite having degrees and high academic accolades, employees from these countries earn very low pay and this makes them always yearn for greener pastures that can enable them earn better pay. As a result, these workers move to the developed countries where even the unskilled laborers can still make a decent living.
- Poor social and living conditions. There are many skilled and educated personnel who have moved from their countries because of the poor living and social conditions in the developing countries. This is because they want better living conditions for themselves as well as their families. Research shows that most of the students from developing countries who go to study in the developed countries do not go back home due to the difference in living conditions.
Many economists have debated over this matter with some explaining that brain drain has both positive and negative effects. There are many disadvantages of brain drain for developing countries including inadequate laborers in important sectors and hindering development in these countries.
On the other hand, brain drain helps to reduce the rates of unemployment in the developing countries as well as contributes towards the GDP of these countries through remittances and investments made by the workers who migrate to the developed countries. These are the reasons why some economists argue for brain drain stating that in the long run the developing countries benefit from this.
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Online sources:
http://chora.virtualave.net/brain-drain7.htm
http://geography.about.com/od/urbaneconomicgeography/a/braindrain.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital_flight