What is brain drain?

Slide 1
In laymans language, it can be as the emigration of highly trained or intelligent people
from a particular country.
The term "brain drain" was coined by the Royal Society to describe the emigration of
"scientists and technologists" to North America from post-war Europe.

brain drain is an Economics term equivalent to the Sociology term, Human capital flight
Brain Drain can occur either when individuals who study abroad or complete their education, do
not return to their home country or when individuals educated in their home country emigrate for
higher wages and job oppurtunities.
The converse phenomenon is "brain gain", which occurs when there is a large-scale immigration
of technically qualified persons. There are also other relevant phrases, "brain circulation" and
"brain waste".
Although the term originally referred to technology workers leaving a nation, the meaning has
broadened into "the departure of educated or professional people from one country, economic
sector, or field for another, usually for better pay or living conditions"

There are several types of brain drain: Slide 2

Organizational: The flight of talented, creative, and highly trained employees from large
corporationse.g. Yahoo,[3] HubSpot,[4] and Microsoft[5] that occurs when employees
perceive the direction and leadership of the company to be unstable or stagnant, and thus,
unable to keep up with their personal and professional ambitions. This is an Example of
Internal Brain Drain, where skilled labour is roatating within a particular country.

Geographical: The flight of highly trained individuals and college graduates from their
area of residence, for instance, those migrating from the mid-western United States to the
coastal states and large metropolises.[6]

Industrial: The movement of traditionally skilled workers from one sector of an industry to
another. For example, jobs in the United States and other governments, also known as the
public sector, have experienced significant generational brain drain as tenured boomer
generation employees retire. Heightened competition for talent from the private sector and
budgetary constraints have made it increasingly difficult to attract replacements for these

retirees.[7]
In practical world who does it effects?
Brain done is basically a seen in developing countries. i.e the skill labour of the developing
countries are moving to developed countries. So, the developing countries plays the role of

Brain Gainer. For eg, India, being a country is the one who is facing brain brain darin, and
countries like USA and Australia are having Brain gain.
Reason Me add karna)-A chief reason for this is, the ability of these developed countries to
generate more jobs. These countries, having More development per annum, can generate more
jobs than the rest of the developing countries. And even the jobs that are generated are better
than those generated in the developing countries.
Examples: Slide 3 with 2 pics
An example is Albert Einstein-Theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, who emigrated to the United States to
escape Nazi persecution, is an example of human capital flight as a result of political change.
An historical example of the brain drain can be East and west Germany, Two sections of a
country had huge differences in their level of development and the life style of people living in
East Germany was less developed compared to the western block. This made the skilled labour
from east Germany move to west Germany. As result of this, the resources were used from these
people of the east Germany, but all the fruits were taken away by the western blocks.

Understanding this cycle: Slide 4

In todays era, each economy, wants to be self sufficient. In this process, in the
recent years, each government is trying to develop their education system. In
this process, most of them are investing more and more on this sector. In
developing economies, where they dont have enough capital to suffice the
needs of each sector, some other sectors have to be compromised upon to give
extra capital to educational sector. With such investments in educational sector
the government aims at the long term benefits. As, in the government believes
that this educated class will earn a lot more than it could have earned as a part
of the manual labour force. But when it invests so much, the returns are not
upto the mark, as much of the intelligent labour is taken away by the foreign
countries. And even in this section of Intelligent Labour, the best ones ones are
taken by the foreign countries.
Reasons for people moving out: Slide 5 with 2 pics
Push Factors:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)

Under- employment
Economic-underdevelopment
Low wage/salary
Political Instability
Lack of freedom
Discrimination in Appointment and promotion
Poor working Facilities

Pull Factors:
1) Better economic prospects
2) Better level of living and way of life

3) Modern EDUCTIONAL SYSTEM and better opportunity for higher

qualifications
4) Prestige of foreign training
5) Relative political stability

These are not the only factores that lead to Brain drain- For eg-An individuals
personal motives or experiences, i.e- 1) Family/marriage 2) feelings and intrests
of the children 3) Friends

Current brain Drain issues: Slide 5

1) The former soviet union countries and todays Russia continue to
experience a brain drain in science business and culture as many of
their citizens leave for US, Israel,Japan, latin America for dramatic
political and economic changes.
2) France is currently exprenicing a brain drain with young graduates
moving to Britain, Usa and Canada because of economic and labour
regulations making it extensively difficult to find white collar private
jobs.
3) IN the recent years, Germany is facing brain drain. Nearly 1.6 lakh
people leave country every year due to economic problems. This
has been the highest rate in Germany after the World War II.
Begning of the end of brain drain- Slide 6
Reverse brain drain is a form of brain drain where human capital moves in reverse from a
more developed country to a less developed country that is developing rapidly. These migrants
may accumulate savings, also known as remittances, and develop skills overseas that can be
used in their home country.
The occurrence of reverse brain drain mostly depends on the state of the countrys development,
and also strategies and planning over a long period of time to reverse the migration.
For eg- One of the major concern of The US is that Large m=amount of skilled labour force that
originally belonged to India is eventually moving back to India because of it growing at a very fast
pace.
Was the grain drain itself a bad thing?
Perhaps not. Because as far as india is concerned, when this skilled labour force moved out of
the country, the country itself couldnt enough jobs to satisfy the need of all. And this this labour
force when lived in US supplied us withhuge sums of foreign exchange that has helped india
import the goods that it itself cannot produce.