Migration
A new database of health professional emigration from Africa
Brain-drain questions answered by first ever database of net bilateral migration flows
Authors:
M.A. Clemens; G. Pettersson
Publisher:
Center for Global Development, USA, 2006
As part of a larger study of the consequences of the international migration of African health professionals, this note for the Center for Global Development presents data on the flow of African-born physicians and nurses to the nine most important destination countries. It is the first database of net bilateral migration flows specific to a skilled profession collected systematically for a large number of developing countries. In this note the authors make these data available to the research community.
Researchers studying trade flows or investment flows have ready access to desegregated data provided by the International Monetary Fund or World Bank. However, there exists no comprehensive and systematic bilateral database of the international flows of human beings for all countries, much less one that provides details about the migrants such as their occupation. All rich countries collect occupation-specific data on people who arrive in the country but most do not do so for people who depart the country, making high-frequency occupation-specific data on bilateral gross migration flows impossible to compile. Until such a database exists, quantitative study of this crucial aspect of globalisation will be impeded.
