THERE is a growing battle for talent worldwide. In Zimbabwe, this skills shortage is the key driver of wage inflation, which is expected to increase in 2006 as civil servants and other employees make incessant demands for cost-of-living salary adjustments. It is this writer's view that here in Zimbabwe, the so-called 'brain drain' and the deleterious effects of HIV/AIDS have spawned the skills shortage.
The 'brain drain' is projected to continue as long as the adverse economic conditions persist.This week's instalment examines closely the concept of brain drain. It begins by defining "brain drain" and proceeds to review literature on the subject matter.
There appears to be several definitions of "brain drain" Some scholars say a "brain drain" occurs when people leave home to study abroad, and then stay abroad (Kwok and Leland, 1982). Other say it occurs when people work and study at home when young, and work abroad when older (Lucas, 1988; Azariadis and Drazen, 1990). Brain drain is traditionally viewed as the movement of highly skilled workers - sometimes referred to as knowledge workers - from their home countries to countries that offer them greater opportunities in their area of specialty as well as in terms of living conditions and lifestyle (Tansel and Gungor, 2003). However, another prevalent form of brain drain is the failure of students to return to their native countries after going abroad to study.
In this instalment we shall use the term brain drain simply to mean the emigration of skilled workers - in the default case emigration permanently but in extensions to the discussion temporarily.Africa is suffering from a brain drain, losing one third of its professionals to the developed world.
In Zimbabwe, it is estimated that almost three million out of the country's total 14 million Zimbabweans, the majority of whom are professionals, are living outside the southern African country (UNDP, 2006). The figure is estimated to comprise almost half of the country's working population. The International Organization on Migration (IOM) says the number of persons living outside their country of birth has doubled over the last 35 years. It estimates that more than 175 million people are migrants worldwide and that one in every 35 persons is a migrant. "This trend can be expected to continue in the coming decades," warns IOM.
The focus of most brain drain studies is usually on researchers, scientists and engineers (RSE). This category of knowledge workers can be expanded to include medical, information technology, and business professionals (Mosley and Hurley, 1999; Arlene Richards, 2001; Janet Scott, 2002). It was estimated that in the past 10 years about half of the Ethiopians who went abroad for study or training did not return. In 1997 alone more than 1,000 professionals left Zimbabwe for Britain and there were now an estimated 10 000 Nigerian academics employed in the United States. In Ghana and Zimbabwe three quarters of all doctors migrate within a few years of completing their medical degree. (Naledi Pandor, 2006).
The brain drain issue has received considerable attention from the Zimbabwean media as a serious economic and social problem particularly within the context of the protracted economic crisis. Professor Chetsanga has also investigated Zimbabwe's brain drain problem (2003).From a global perspective, the issue of brain drain is even more pronounced. In the USA, 12.8 per cent of all US Research and Development (R&D) workers in 1993 were foreign-born, and 29.3 per cent of the R&D workers with science or engineering PhDs were immigrants (Johnson and Regets, 1998). Most of the OECD-born, immigrant scientists and engineers with science and engineering doctorates come from the United Kingdom and Canada. If non-OECD countries are included, there are three times as many foreign-born scientists in the USA from China and twice as many from India as there are from the United Kingdom. This reflects findings (Johnson and Regets, 1998) that Asian science and engineering PhDs in the USA far outnumber Europeans and non-US North Americans and that almost 40 per cent of them make firm plans to stay (Peter Hall, 2005)
Having defined brain drain and reviewed applicable literature on the issue, we now proceed to identify the key determinants of brain drain. Understanding these is key to evolving effective policy interventions. A key question is why knowledge workers move from source countries to destination countries. For individual migrants, migration offers the prospect of a better life. For each individual, there is a net gain wherever the benefits of life in the destination country exceed those in the country of origin and the difference between the two is not swallowed up by the costs of moving. Benefits must be interpreted widely to depend on both income and the range of other contributions to an individual's welfare - which, for a researcher, will include the interest and challenge of the work as well as the social and work environment more generally. It is assumed that workers only move if they expect a net gain.Standard economic models (Sjaastad, 1962; Todaro, 1969) emphasise expected income differentials as the main driver of migration. However, non-economic issues also play an important role in migration decisions among knowledge populations (Peter Hall, 2005). According to Hall, ties of family, friends and culture will exert a pull to stay at home though in widely varying degrees. For others, the attractions of new experiences and a new start may be strong. This is particularly true for academic researchers where research programmes are usually self-determined. They will stay at home if, other things equal, source country offers a better base than destination country for pursuing their interests. A good example here would be the study of ecological systems, animal species or natural resources peculiar to source. Business-based researchers may stay home, too, if they continue to be challenged by tasks at least as interesting to them as they know are available abroad. In brief, the key determinants become the nature of the tasks as well as the professional environment.
Typically, discussion on the brain drain invariably leads to an assessment of the gains and losses associated with the problem. According to Naledi Pandor "What this means is that African countries are funding the education of their nationals only to see them contributing to the growth of developedcountries with little or no return on (their) investment," Although this outflow is seen as a constructive dynamic by some commentators, the situation requires intervention especially if Africa is to realise its development objectives.Studies show that many immigrant scholars from the developing countries, particularly from Asia and Latin America, contribute tremendously in development processes of their native countries while still located abroad. Migrant remittances constitute a significant source of foreign exchange and a strong element of domestic demand in labour exporting countries, representing a substantial proportion of their export proceeds and their GDP, even without counting the often considerable flows through unofficial channels. They play a role in the economy of these countries in the form of foreign exchange, the lack of which puts a constraint on their development. Chenery and Bruno (1962) consider the lack of foreign exchange in LDC's as an "external strangulation" for development, depriving them of the required capital imports. Therefore, remittances, whose share in the available foreign exchange of labour exporting countries is high, may substitute for the lack of other sources, such as proceeds from exports or aid.
The remainder of this instalment explores some of the policy interventions that can be pursued to counter the deleterious effects of the brain drain in source countries. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Zimbabwe should urgently address push factors that have led to a massive loss of skilled personnel. The UNDP contends that much of the brain drain bedevilling Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular, can be attributed to 'a difficult macroeconomic environment and high cost of living and taxation affecting disposable incomes and salaries'. The current brain drain from Zimbabwe should not be viewed solely from the employment problem created by the conditions of the ongoing economic crisis and ensuing uncertainties. Smart labour (RSE workers) will be influenced by international income differentials in making location decisions but they will also be sensitive to the long-term prospects of being able to pursue the problems that interest them. Increasing total government R&D spending or the share of basic research alone will raise a country's R&D wages and, ceteris paribus, retain and even attract (through circular migration) knowledge workers.
Our Universities are losing experienced academic researchers because of poor investments in R&D.It is this writer's contention that the issue of brain drain will generate intense debate going forward in view of the raging global battle for talent that is unfolding. There is need for more research on the dynamics of brain drain in view of globalisation.
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