Author: Scotty Hendricks / Source: Big Think
- Recently, it has occurred in several countries that were doing well even a few years ago.
- Can it happen here?
Many of us who have ever dared to complain about the place we live in have heard the juvenile rebuttal “If you don’t like it, why don’t you leave?
” As it turns out, sometimes people take that advice. When a country’s educated, intelligent, or entrepreneurial citizens take the advice all at once, the phenomenon is called “human capital flight” or “brain drain”.Brain drain is pretty bad, and governments will go to great lengths to prevent it. Despite this, it can happen for many reasons almost anywhere.
How does it start?
As with all cases of emigration, there are push factors causing people to want to leave their countries, such as instability, political oppression, or lack of economic opportunity, and pull factors drawing them towards another country, such as better job opportunities, freedom, or political stability.
Often, the idea that the promise of lower taxes elsewhere is pulling all the talent out of one country and into another is proposed as the cause of brain drain by political leaders. The jury is still out on whether this is a significant factor for most people who do leave one country for another. Some papers say it is an important issue; others argue it isn’t.
What effects does it have on an economy?
That question is surprisingly difficult. It stands to reason that losing all your skilled workers at once would be devastating to an economy and a there is evidence to support that idea. It has been shown, however, that not all the effects are negative and that some countries benefit from sending their skilled workers elsewhere then hoping for remittances.
In any case, nobody likes to read headlines about all the educated people leaving the country in a hurry, and most societies consider brain drain to be dangerous.
Where have brain drains happened?
Photo by ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech during a symposium on local authorities under the new presidential government system, at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, on January 9, 2019.
Turkey is currently suffering a bout of human capital flight as the wealthy, talented, and educated rush for the exits. This has…
The post Could a “brain drain” hit the U.S.? appeared first on FeedBox.