Measures to stop intellectual migration?
Answers
Center of knowledge have, in all times, been poles of attraction to those who for one reason or another have strived to learn. The pole sometimes consists of the brains of a master. This was particularly so in the past. Today it should be supplemented to a large extent by research and experimentation facilities. So, taken in its basic nature, what we would like to call "intellectual migration" rather than its more common denomination of "brain drain" is a permanent phenomenon in the development of man and his society. It should not be taken as an exclusive symptom of modern world social evolution but a continuing historical process on which many of the assumptions in this paper are based. Aristotle himself was a "brain drain" for Macedonia!
If the definition "intellectual migration" is preferred to "brain drain", it is because the term "drain" reduces the phenomenon to a problem, namely that of the losing country. In fact, while the "brain" under consideration is a "drain" for one society, it is, most of the time, gain for another. The term "intellectual migration" brings the phenomenon to its real dimension seen from the angle of international society.
We should however delimit the significance of "migration" within the subject of our study. Our concern here is not simple migration. Each migrant has an occupation but is not necessarily an intellectual. The metropolis offers more opportunities and has therefore a force of attraction. The movement can be from village to the city or from one country to another. In the context of the latter we wish to consider that fraction of international migration covering the highly qualified persons.
A nurse who does not find an appropriate job in a hospital in her country goes abroad. Without any prejudice to her skillfulness and intellectual capacities, she is not classified as an intellectual in the proper sense of the term. She may migrate despite an existing need for nurses which she does not fill either due to lack of stimulating conditions, or defective organization and absence of proper canalization of offer and demand.
We are interested in our present study in the migration of those elements who, had they stayed or returned home, could have remedied this lack of organization and stimulation. In other words, by intellectuals we mean those who can provide leadership, enterprise and administrational. [1]
For the purposes of the present study the phenomenon is of interest to us only when a highly qualified person belonging to one country remains definitely in another country. We are thus not concerned with foreign students who once their studies and "specialization" finished return home. But at what moment does the training for a specialty terminate? Is a medical doctor working in a hospital or an engineer working in a factory a drain? He would definitely be of more use to his country and anywhere else if he came back not only with theoretical knowledge but with experience. This of course renders difficult the identification of the subject of study. Here again the choice of the term "migration" can help to delimit the subject. This will include in the first instance the "intention" to stay. It can be completed by the social and professional situation of the subject. The intention should of course be taken into consideration after a period of adaptation and real material possibilities to stay. In terms of Lysgaard's V-shape curve [2] the intention can be materialized at the end of the curve and not at its beginning. As we shall see later, real material possibilities of subsistence are in some cases more decisive than academic achievements.
Who are those staying abroad and why do they stay? These two basic questions are inter-related and have to be taken into consideration together. Another division is possible and perhaps more appropriate, namely, to consider the factors proper to the individual's situation and personal motivations, on the one hand, and the influencing political, social and economic conditions in home and host countries on the other hand.
Another distinction to be made is that between migrations of intellectuals between developed countries-mostly from European countries to the United States-and that from developing countries to developed countries-from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America to Europe and North America. While intellectuals of developed and developing countries migrate under certain common impulses, for those from developing countries some additional causes can be enumerated. Whenever specific conditions exist a separation is made. Otherwise the accent has been put on migration of intellectuals from developing to developed countries. Needless to say, whenever conditions described as belonging to a developing country correspond to the situation in a developed country, they should be understood as equally applying to the developed country.