Science review: Brain drain or brain gain? Effects of high-skilled international emigration on origin countries (DOI: 10.1126/science.adr8861)
The emigration of high-skilled professionals from small or lower-income countries can prompt concerns of "brain drain" in their countries of origin, but it can also lead to "brain gain," says a University of Michigan researcher.
A new review published in Science reveals evidence that high-skilled migration opportunities can increase, rather than decrease, a country's overall stock of educated workers.
Migrants can also have powerful effects on well-being and prosperity in their home countries, through sending money directly to their households and communities, new trade linkages, technology and knowledge transfer that affects regional business and innovation, and political and social norms.
"These findings should reassure policymakers who worry that their countries are being drained of talent," said co-author Dean Yang, U-M professor of public policy and economics and an affiliate of the Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research.
"The evidence shows that migration opportunities often create positive feedback loops: More people invest in education when they see pathways abroad, remittances fund further investments in human capital, and diaspora networks facilitate knowledge transfer and business development. The key is having flexible education systems and investment climates that can capture these benefits."
Examples of 'brain gain'
An example of brain gain can be found in the case of the Philippines, which trained a large workforce of nurses in the early 2000s in response to the U.S. expanding the number of visas available for foreign nurses. Nearly 27,000 nurses left the Philippines to work in the U.S. between 2000 and 2006-but more than three times as many newly licensed nurses remained in the Philippines, the study reported.
Similarly, a relaxed visa cap in the U.S. led to a surge of computer science training in India; more people acquired IT skills than emigrated, raising the number of people with those skills at home.
A key takeaway for policymakers: In these cases, brain gain depended on the origin country having adequate training infrastructure, allowing them to adjust to meet demand for skilled workers abroad. Other impacts on home economies vary by context and time frame, Yang said.
Population health impact?
Despite concerns that emigration could undermine population health in origin countries if needed health care workers depart, empirical evidence does not suggest strong negative effects, and in some cases points toward emigration improving health care in origin countries, the review authors found.
Health care spending in Mexican communities, for example, responds very strongly to remittances, Yang said, and migration from Mexico to the U.S. increased birth weights and reduced infant mortality in origin households, partly due to increased medical knowledge.
A cited study across 53 African countries found that larger emigration rates of health workers did not lead to substantial reductions in the number of physicians and nurses in the home country or to negative outcomes for population health in terms of disease prevalence or infant mortality. This suggests government policies incentivizing work in rural areas would better stand to improve population health outcomes in Africa than policies that restrict emigration, according to the Science review.
Implications for policy and research
Demographic factors such as rising education levels worldwide and migration policies that favor high-skilled migrants mean that the flow of high-skilled migrants from poor to rich countries will continue to grow, Yang said.
In this context, the review authors point to important directions for future research and for policy related to high-skilled emigration. This includes research to understand effective policy responses for sending regions, especially for small, fragile countries of origin.
"Policymakers should not aim to restrict emigration, but can enact policies that enhance its benefits and reduce its costs," Yang said. "There is a need for more active policy efforts, policy testing, and pilot projects that can build training infrastructure, remove barriers to return migration, and enhance the benefits flowing from migrants abroad."
Co-authors of the Science review include first-author Cátia Batista (Nova School of Business and Economics), Daniel Han (Boston University), Johannes Haushofer (Cornell University), Gaurav Khanna (University of California San Diego), David McKenzie (Development Research Group, World Bank), Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale University) and Caroline Theoharides (Amherst College).
