Brain drain: Effects and remedies

Omer · #1 Thursday, April 10, 2008

Brain drain: Effects and remedies

By Sehar Sheikh

The term ‘brain drain’ refers to the emigration of highly educated, skilled professional and technical manpower from the developing to the developed countries.

This phenomenon, in the terminology of development economics, refers to the loss of high quality manpower, which could be productively employed in the native country. It is particularly true in the case of doctors, engineers, scientists, business students and educationists, thousands of whom are educated and trained in their motherland at a relatively low cost only to benefit the already affluent nations and contribute towards their economic growth.

The trend of moving abroad in search of a better life has increased rapidly among Pakistani professionals in the last few decades. Thousands of professionals have already migrated to foreign lands for better prospects and a large number of professional who are still here are planning to do the same. The only justification they give in this connection is that they need a reward for their capabilities in terms of recognition and a good income, which they find hard to get in their own country.

Qaiser Hamza, a telecom engineer from one of the reputed engineering universities of Pakistan says, ”I’m planning to go to the UK for higher studies and will try my best to settle there permanently. Work and life are more exciting there and we get far better rewards for our hard work as compared to that in our homeland”.

I’m currently studying Business Administration at one of the oldest and most reputable universities of the country and I feel bad when my class fellows and teachers whine about the working situations in Pakistan. The young students, who are the foundation of the future economic development of the state, claim that they don’t want to ‘waste’ their talent in Pakistan because of unfavourable job conditions. Therefore, after the completion of their graduation, most of them start scurrying to foreign emigration consultants for help and are advised to migrate to Canada, UK, USA, Japan, Ireland etc for further studies.

Out of these professionals who migrate, a large number doesn’t come back after completing their studies and settle permanently in the foreign countries. Though we get foreign remittances as a result of ‘brain drain’, but the money they send cannot substitute the services that they are providing to foreigners and contributing towards their rapid scientific, economic and technological growth. However, these young professionals aren’t totally at fault nor are they unpatriotic. A deep insight into the pay scale of those who have been freshly hired by the government organisations reveals the darker side of the picture.

Unfortunately, the qualification that one has acquired is not enough to get him the job and status that he deserves. For example, in Pakistan a scientist with a high level of qualification is placed in Grade 17, with a salary that nowhere matches his social status. These professionals keep on working for several years on the same designation and grade without being promoted. It is these annoying factors that compel them to leave the homeland in search of better job opportunities.

The irony it is that these skilled professionals are the people, which a developing nation like Pakistan can least afford to lose. Though Pakistan is a country with a large population but the fact is that economic progress of a nation depends upon ‘quality’ and not the quantity of its manpower.

The effects of brain drain are very destructive. The broadly construed brain drain has not only reduced the supply of vital professionals but has also diverted the attention of those who stay in their native lands from important local problems and goals. These problems include the development of appropriate technology; the promotion of low cost preventive health care; the construction of low cost housing, hospitals and schools; the designs and building of functional yet inexpensive labour-intensive infrastructure etc.

For example, we constantly find physicians specialising in heart diseases, however the preventive tropical medicine is considered a second rate priority in Pakistan. Engineers and scientists are more interested in ‘reshaping communications’ and modern equipment while the simple machine tools, manual or animal-operated farm equipment, basic sanitation and water purifying systems are left to the mercy of ‘foreign experts’. Economists teach and research irrelevant, sophisticated mathematical models of nonexistent competitive economies while problems of poverty, unemployment, rural development and education remain untouched. Michael P. Todaro in his book ‘Economic Development’ terms this as ‘internal brain drain’. He writes, ”Dominated by rich-country ideas as to what represents true professional excellence, those highly educated and highly skilled LDC (Least Developed Countries) professionals who do not physically migrate to the developed nations nevertheless migrate intellectually in terms of the orientation of their activities. In all these diverse activities the performance criteria are not often based on contribution to national development but rather on praise from the international community”. He states that this internal brain drain is much more serious problem than the external one.

The expenditure of Pakistan’s government as a percentage of annual budget in the education sector is extremely low as compared to the other developing countries in the South Asian region. Unstable political scenario, poor security arrangements for average citizens and lack of investment in the local industry are some other reasons that contribute to brain drain.

Kamran, a young HR consultant who recently flew to Dubai with his newly-wed bride says, ”With the prevailing political instability, continuous pitfall in leading industries on which countries’ manufacturing relied, poor law and order situation and dwindling literacy rates, the progress of this nation is a far-wretched idea. I want to stay and work in my homeland but if you want to give a better future to your wife and kids and if your resources allow you, then I think you should move to a part of the world where there is a good reward of your work and a land with better law and order situation.”

I don’t want to give a sermon on patriotism, however, I would like to point out that individuals make a nation and if all of us start fleeing to other countries then who will stay here to amend the flaws in the system? Also, if the Pakistani government is serious about stemming its alarming brain drain, it must give due importance to the following points: * Provide better salaries to the employees, at least as much as the local private organisations are paying.

• Improve work conditions according to the social status of professionals.

• Devise promotion policies based on quality of work performed and not according to tenor of the job.

• Hire manpower purely on merit, through written tests and/or interviews.

If these major issues get resolved, only then can we hope that our professionals will stay in our homeland and work enthusiastically for the development of the state.