March 2004 / No. 28

Emigration

Brain Drain the Full Story

Immigration has been occurring throughout history and there have always been people who wanted to transcend political borders for more than one year and settle in another place.

Aquestion posed by economists since a long time ago, is why some nations are developed and others are poor and underdeveloped. The answer is that during previous years, different viewpoints regarding growth models have been presented and during recent decades it has been said that human resources are the key to economic development.

In 1961, Theodore Durchsatz opined that the key to economic development was human and not other sources. He believed that the growth in the American economy following the big crisis was due to increase in human resources. Based on current viewpoints on growth, which are owed to efforts of Lucas and Romer, human resources can lead to sustainable economic growth by providing conditions to eliminate a descending output. The main approach referred to by those viewpoints was clear enough: “Try to increase reserved human capital.”

Human capital includes those capitals that have been earned through heavy costs and include science, specialty, experience, capability, health, and discipline, which have been accumulated in the workforce through education and observing health conditions and increase productivity of production process. Therefore, human resources such as scientists, experts, manpower as well as organizational and institutional resources are recognized as human resources.

In this way, educating society became more pronounced once more and various countries started investing in those fields, especially during the second half of the 20th century. Although large-scale investments have been made in educating manpower in proportion to resources available to every country, they fell short of desired results and underdeveloped nations are still in the grips of poverty. It seems that apart from the method of investments and their allocation, one of the most important reasons for non-realization of the projected goals is brain drain.

Immigration has been occurring throughout history and there have always been people who wanted to transcend political borders for more than one year and settle in another place. Somebody who leaves his country for another place is called an immigrant. On the other hand, ‘brains’ are skilled manpower of a country. Inventors, innovators, thinkers and other knowledgeable people form the elite. In other words, the elite are human resources of a country.

Immigration of the elite or brain drain which is mainly directed from developing toward developed nations can drastically decrease economic potentials of a society through reducing its human capital while advanced countries that were major destinations for experts from developing countries added to their economic growth through expanding their human capital at the cost of underdevelopment of other countries. The most important economic effects of brain drain are reduced economic growth, unemployment, inflation, deficit in balance of payments and generally, lower welfare for those who remain in the country.

Evidence shows that due to the comprehensive nature of information in the modern world (as a result of globalization) a passive approach to this phenomenon would be fruitless and scrutinizing the issue to find suitable solutions for every individual country is a necessity. Anyway, before thinking about an approach one has to determine the extents of the phenomenon. The current article aims to introduce dimensions of brain drain from developing nations to other countries.

Brain Drain in the World: Brain drain guised as immigration and settlement of thinkers and technical experts from developing countries to the United States, Canada and Western Europe was striking in the 1960s. Based on official figures published by UNCTAD, about 400,000 skilled workers emigrated from developing to developed countries from 1961 to 1972. Based on the same figures approximately 69% of university graduates migrated from Jamaica to North America during 1977-80.

Figures released by UNESCO in 1976 indicated that the number of student immigrants attending foreign universities continuously increased from 297,575 in 1969 to 400,686 in 1973.

There are no figures on the number of students who had returned to their home countries, but the study carried out by UNESCO showed that only 17% of 151,066 foreign students that gradated from the American universities returned to their countries in 1973.

The highest statistics among destination countries was related to the United States, Canada and Western Europe. About 410,000 Indian experts left their country in 1990, 30% of whom settled in the United States, while 23% in West Asia and 11% in Europe. Global figures relating to 1993 revealed that about 9% of experts with doctorate degrees in the United States had studied at foreign schools and about 29% of them were born in other countries.

During the same year (1993), 130,000 Russian graduates immigrated to Europe and America. Based on studies carried out in 1990, the highest figure for immigration to the United States among Asian and Oceania countries pertained to Philippines (730,000) and most of them were university graduates.

The second country in terms of sending immigrants to America was China (400,000) all of whom had completed high school or higher educations. Indian and South Korea sent 300,000 immigrants to the United States apiece, 75% and 53% of whom, respectively, enjoyed academic educations. The highest immigration figure from Africa to the United States pertained to Egypt, Ghana and South Africa, more than 60% of which had completed higher educations. Among Latin American countries, Mexico accounted for the highest number of immigrants at 2.7 million, 2 million of whom enjoyed high school or higher education.

Based on available statistics, average educational costs at the American universities varied from 6,000-13,000 dollars (depending on the scientific position of the universities). Therefore, the United States saves, at least, 130-280 billion dollars through immigration of other countries’ graduates. The figure only covers direct educational costs.

Most immigrants to member countries of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) hailed from Iran, Korea and Philippines and 25% of Iranians residing in OECD member states enjoyed higher educations. The corresponding figures for Korea and Philippines stood at 15% and 10%, respectively. Among African countries, Ghana and South Africa account for the highest number of immigrants to OECD countries. What must be pointed out regarding OECD countries is the high percentage of those with higher educations with the main reason being remarkable facilities and easier conditions for admitting people with those characteristics.

Figures show that while the share of Europe from total immigrants to the United Stats had reduced during the said years, share of Asia, as well as North and South America increased with the highest hike belonging to Asia and North America. In addition to the said countries, Eastern bloc countries have sent many immigrants to advanced industrial nations. What exacerbates the brain drain is the unwillingness of experts and specialists to go back to their home countries.

Brain Drain in Iran: The brain drain in Iran dates back to the 1950s. Prominent periods with regard to this phenomenon included the 1960s and 1970s up to the victory of the Islamic revolution (first period), 1978 and 1979 up to the Cultural Revolution (second period) and 1988 up to now (third period). Unfortunately, accurate data on brain drain in Iran during the 1950s and 1960s and even after that are lacking. Therefore, in this study various domestic and foreign sources have been used to produce figures on the issue.

Based on figures released by U.S. Naturalization Bureau, the number of Iranians entering that country as students has reached 4,832 in 1973 from 977 in 1960. Based on the same report, about 17% of Iranian students applied for permanent residency after arriving in America in 1973. Statistics of International Education Institute shows that 9,623 Iranian students lived in the United States during the academic year 1973-74; 71% of them studied for bachelor’s degree, 22 percent for master’s and higher degrees and 2% for fellowship while the rest studied other courses.

Based on 1990 population census in the United States, about 220,000 people had introduced themselves as originating from Iran, about 77% percent of which enjoyed academic educations. Based on a report by U.S. Statistics Bureau, 46% of Iranian immigrants in 1991 census held bachelor’s and higher degrees, 42% of whom enjoyed scientific and skill levels, 22% ran commercial companies, industrial factories, hospitals and gymnasiums with an average income of $55,000 while the average income for American citizens stood at $35,000. Based on figures released by the United Nations in 1993, about 240,000 Iranians with higher educations lived in the United States; of which 1,862 were full-time and about 3,200 were part-time faculty members. Interestingly, the number of full-time faculty members in all higher educational centers of Iran stood at 1,900 during the academic year 1996-97.

About 180,000 immigration applicants for Canada were submitted to the Canadian embassy in Tehran by Iranians that enjoyed management background at middle levels during 1988-1998. Figures on Iranians applying for immigration to other countries in 1998 indicated that out of 412 immigrants, 390 applicants; that is, more than 94% held bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees.

Based on a report issued by scientific data bank, the bank registered specifications of 37,362 Iranians enjoying bachelors and higher degrees up to 1997, of which 29% held doctorate, 33% held masters and 48% held bachelors degrees. Most Iranian graduates have been employed in important jobs in the United States.

The former Minister of Science, Research and Technology said in an interview that about 220,000 scientific, management and entrepreneurship elites immigrated to a Western country in 2000. The corresponding figure for the preceding year was near 90,000. All those accepted to universities passing admission examinations with two-digit grades received invitations from the best universities of the world annually and approximately, 90 out of 135 students that ranked in scientific Olympiads during 1998-2001 are currently studying in American universities.

Based on a report issued by the International Monetary Fund in 1999, out of 61 countries, Iran enjoyed the highest number of educated immigrants, so that, about $11 billion worth of intellectual assets left Iran during that year.

Conclusion: Based on the abovementioned figures, there is intense competition among advanced countries for attracting the elite and skilled workforce from other parts of the world. Statistics show that more than 60% of U.S. immigrants enjoyed higher educations in 1990 alone. The phenomenon has taken on new dimensions in Iran and existing figures are indicative of an upward trend in Iranians immigrating to other countries during 1973-1993, so that, during that period, an average of 12,000 skilled workers left Iran per annum for other countries, especially member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.