Brain drain
Skilled migration: the perspective of developing countries
Migration and brain drain may not be as bad as previously theorised
Authors:
F. Docquier; H. Rapoport
Publisher:
World Bank, 2004
This paper examines the consequences of skilled migration for developing countries. The authors first present new evidence on the magnitude of migration of skilled workers at the international level and then discuss its direct and indirect effects on human capital formation in developing countries in a unified stylised model. Finally they turn to policy implications, with emphasis on migration and education policy in a context of globalised labour markets.
In the first section of this paper, the authors summarise the findings of Docquier and Marfouk (2004) on the international mobility of the highly-skilled, which show that "brain drain" has gained in magnitude over the period covered, but that substantial differences remain across regions and income groups.
In the central section of the paper, the authors ask whether the traditional detrimental effects of brain drain, stressed in early literature, may be offset by potentially beneficial effects emphasised in more recent contributions (remittances, return migration, creation of trade and business networks, and possible incentive effects of migration prospects on human capital formation at home). They provide empirical evidence on these different channels. The authors suggest that migration prospects may foster domestic enrollment in education, for example.
The last section explores some of the policy implications of the analysis, with emphasis on migration policy and education policy. The authors show that from the perspective of developing countries, the "optimal" emigration rate for the highly-skilled is zero where liquidity constraints are strongly binding and then conforms to an inverse-U shape pattern with respect to the country's level of development.
This paper - a product of the Trade Team, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to measure and understand the implication of the brain drain as part of the International Migration and Development Program.
