SHOULD BRAIN DRAIN BE BANNED

INTRODUCTION:
The term "brain drain" refers to the movement of highly educated people from their
respective countries to other countries looking for green pasture. It refers to the movement of
intellectuals like University lecturers and researchers from one national setting to another,
ranging from permanent relocation to short-term visits or exchange programs, facilitates the
dissemination of knowledge and the broadening of cultural horizons. However, when one
nation becomes a substantial net exporter of academic talent, a "brain drain" condition is said
to occur. The presence of this condition suggests that the provider nation is at risk of
depleting its natural supply of intellectual talent.
Education seems to play a key role influencing rural-urban migration in the developing
countries. Numbers of studies of migration in many countries have documented the positive
relationship between the educational accomplishment of an individual and his or her interest
to migrate from rural to urban areas.
Education also plays a big role in the growing problems of international migration of high
level educated individuals from poor countries to the rich ones causing the so called Brain
Drain to the poor countries. Scientists, eingineers, academics and physicians who have been
trained with scarcely available resources at social cost in their home countries for the benefits
and growth of their nation. However, this has simply left helplessness to the concerned
institutions and countries of the south that have been loosing thousands of their highly
educated workers for the benefits of the rich countries and individuals themselves. The author
divides international emigrants roughly into 3 major
CATAGORIES:
1.Emigrants due to lack of employment and low salaries, and thus people are tempted to look
for better salaries elsewhere - here, we talk about Economic factors.
2.The second cause of migration is political instability in home countries, thus they loose
confidence to their governments and future prospects for a better life. These are individuals
who may have difficulties because of their ethinic, cultural, religional belongings or being a
member of opposition political groupings in their home countries, - Migration taking place in
response to wars, and political and social turmoil.
3.Many scholars who have been sent abroad for further studies or who are once out in one
way or another, remain abroad leaving their family and workplace behind with the hope that a
better life can be achieved elsewhere, despite their well being at home. Expectations are
usually not met as hopped; thus, obliged to seek asylum which deteriorates their lives and
becomes `ashamed` of themselves to return home empty handed - Immigration flow due to
lack of information and misguidance.

CAUSE OF BRAIN DRAIN IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES:

Brain drain or human capital flight is a large emigration of individuals with technical skills or
knowledge, normally due to conflict, lack of opportunity, political instability, or health risks.
Brain drain is usually regarded as an economic cost, since emigrants usually take with them
the fraction of value of their training sponsored by the government. It is a parallel of capital
flight which refers to the same movement of financial capital. The term was coined by the
Royal Society to describe the emigration of "scientists and technologists" to North America
from post-war Europe.[1] The converse phenomenon is brain gain, which occurs when there
is a large-scale immigration of technically qualified persons. Brain drain can be stopped by
providing individuals who have expertise with career opportunities and giving them
opportunities to prove their capabilities.[citation needed]
Brain drains are common amongst developing nations, such as the former colonies of Africa,
[2] the island nations of the Caribbean,[3] and particularly in centralized economies such as
former East Germany and the Soviet Union, where marketable skills were not financially
rewarded.
FIVE POSSIBLE SOLUTION TO CURVE THE BRAIN DRAIN:
1.Good governance at the national and international level, especially maintenance of
reasonable security for peoples' lives and property is essential for economic progress, Thus
withholding political and economical emigrants, who blame their governement's failure for
political unrest and stagnant economic growth is possible. Transparency in leadership is
essential and should be maintained.
2.Offering higher wages for `insiders` according to their qualifications is essential, instead of
over estimating and hiring expatrates, which are more costly.
3.Education plays a powerful role especially in the growing problems of international
migration. Therefore, offering these individuals the necessariy education qualifications in
their home countries, and expanding a better educational infrasturcture may definitely prevent
emigrants who are seeking a higher education abroad.
4.Seeking alternative measures for return of warranty from the beneficiaries, such as
thewithholding of academic degrees until the graduates return and are willing to serve the
people, may be another considerable alternative.
5.The last alternative measure could be, taxing emigrants who are indigenously trained in
home countries. This is indeed a sensitive issue and may sound absurd, and may potentially
infringe on the basic human right and freedom to chose the nature and location of individuals
where to live and where to work. Thus, it must be agreed upon the international community
and international laws.

6.Since richer African States are also the stakeholders of this so called brain drain, a deal
must be made between rich and poor states of the continent that prohibits the later from
taking intellectuals of the poorer states.
HOW TO AVOID BRAIN DRAIN:
1.Create employment opportunities to enable the highly educated people get access on jobs.
2.Improve on salary scale to enable them get favorable wages.
3.Improve on security in order to avoid political instability.
4.Improve on social developments like health services, education opportunities, transport and
communication.
BANN ON BRAIN DRAIN BY SOVIENT UNION:
By 1922, the Soviet Union had issued restrictions making emigration of its citizens to other
countries all but impossible Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev later stated "We were scared,
really scared. We were afraid the thaw might unleash a flood, which we wouldn't be able to
control and which could drown us. How could it drown us? It could have overflowed the
banks of the Soviet riverbed and formed a tidal wave which would have washed away all the
barriers and retaining walls of our society.After Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe at the
end of World War II, the majority of those living in the newly acquired areas of the Eastern
Bloc aspired to independence and wanted the Soviets to leave. By the early 1950s, the
approach of the Soviet Union to restricting emigration was emulated by most of the rest of
the Eastern Bloc, including East Germany.
Even with the closing of the Inner German border officially in 1952, the border between the
sectors of East Berlin and West Berlin remained considerably more accessible than the rest of
the border because it was administered by all four occupying powers. The Berlin sector
border was essentially a "loophole" through which East Bloc citizens could still escape. The
3.5 million East Germans, called Republikflchtlinge, that had left by 1961 totaled
approximately 20% of the entire East German populationThe emigrants tended to be young
and well educated, leading to the brain drain feared by officials in East Germany.[ Yuri
Andropov, then the CPSU Director on Relations with Communist and Workers Parties of
Socialist Countries, wrote an urgent August 28, 1958 letter to the Central Committee about
the significant 50% increase in the number of East German intelligentsia among the refugees.
Andropov reported that, while the East German leadership stated that they were leaving for
economic reasons, testimony from refugees indicated that the reasons were more political
than material. He stated "the flight of the intelligentsia has reached a particularly critical
phase." The direct cost of manpower losses has been estimated at $7 billion to $9 billion, with
East German party leader Walter Ulbricht later claiming that West Germany owed him $17
billion in compensation, including reparations as well as manpower losses. In addition, the

drain of East Germany's young population potentially cost it over 22.5 billion marks in lost
educational investment. In August 1961, East Germany erected a barbed-wire barrier that
would eventually be expanded through construction into the Berlin Wall, effectively closing
the loophole.
CONSEQUENCES OF BRAIN DRAIN:
As some statistics indicate concerning the current intelectual migration, it is Africa that
suffers most from this `unfortunate phenomena. In 1998 an estimated 700 Ghanaian
physicians are said to have been practicing in the USA alone, which makes a considerable
percentage of the population of doctors in the country. It is estimated that about 20,000
Nigerian academics are now employed inUSA alone and more than 300 Ethiopian physicians
are working in Chicago, USA alone. Here, one can emagine how much it means in the whole
of the United States. According to research reports presented on an international conference
concerning the issue of Brain Drain, Africa generally looses over 20,000 intelectuals yearly.
This is undoubtfully one of the main constraints of under development in the continent. How
long should Africa tolerate this? - indeed not for long.
A new report, brodcasted by the British Broadcasting Corportaion (BBC) says Africa has lost
a third of its skilled professionals in recent decades and it is costing the continent $4 billion
dollars a year to replace them with expatriates from the West. Where as rich countries like the
United States of America have saved a total sum of $26 billion dollars which otherwise
should have spent to train 130,000 highly qualified physicians.
The consequence is especially worse for those countries like Ethiopia. This already poor
and`unfortunate`country has been loosing its meagre professionals continuously since the
previous regimes. Ethiopia has a long history of external provocation and internal conflict
that has been driving out its limited medical doctors in particular and other professionals in
general. The statistical estimates for Ethiopia indicate that about 50 percent of the Ethiopians
who went abroad for training and further education have not returned home for the past two
decades after completing their studies in the West Thousands of them have been trained in
home institutions with considerable social cost and debt from the richest nations. In the past
10 years i.e. between 1980-90, a total of less than 6.000 students have returned from studies
abroad out of nearly 23,000 students who left for Europe and the United States in that same
period of time. These are either tempted by significantly higher wages and better future
prospects or give the blame to the political situation, which they say is a threat even for their
lives. In most cases the later is likely to be the main reason what makes Ethiopians on their
way out from the country. South Africa and Nigeria seem to have the bigest portion in loosing
their professionals from Africa, which consume professionals from other African States on
their part.