Brain-Drain: Challenges and Opportunities in Nepal

Robert Dygas 1"Indian Diaspora should be looked at, not just in terms of its numbers, but also in terms of its strength.The term 'brain drain' has been in vogue.But if we look at the Diaspora as our strength, we can convert this into 'brain gain " PM Narendra Modi (Inauguration of Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra Indian Diaspora Centre on the 2nd of October, 2016)

The aim of this paper was to shift the focus from a negative prejudice about immigration towards a much more positive evaluation. More and more the migration pattern changes from a blue-collar migration of low qualified workers towards a whitecollar mobility of highly skilled professionals. It has to be stressed strongly that - strikingly enough - most migrants are relatively well qualified. Just to mention a new IMF study (Carrington/Detragiache 1999:47), the US data show that immigration flows of individuals with no more than a primary education are quite small, and reach only about 500?000 individuals out of a total of 7 million immigrants! ?For most countries, people with a tertiary education have the highest migration rate ... Thus, migrant to the Unites States tend to be better educated than the average person in their home (that is the sending) country, and the proportion of very highly educated people who migrate is particularly high? (Carrington/Detragiache 1999:48). So, these data clearly indicate that there is a substantial brain drain. Another question of quite similar importance is, why the US only should get a brain gain. Why not the EU? The immigration of highly skilled is crucial and decisive for growth and wealth of nations in the 21st century. Once again this is clearly seen and strategically developed in the US. The USA attracts highly skilled people from all over the world because of a number of natural as well as artificial benefits (?sun, sea, and sand?, close relations between industry and universities etc.) and, therefore, experiences a ?Brain Gain? that stimulates growth. In the case of Europe, mobility is mainly intra-European, representing a ?Brain Exchange?. This is being fuelled by the Europeanisation of production and the creation of an internal labour market. However, the EU lacks the magnetic power to attract high skilled foreign scientists and to become leading centres of research intensive (service) production. For Eastern Europe there is a fear of a ?Brain Drain? that will not be directed towards the EU but rather towards the US.

In the wake of heightened geopolitical conflicts, across and within borders, follow increased flows of highly educated migrants and refugees. Affected nations and organizations experience Brain Drain, Brain Gain and Brain Circulation. In this panel symposium, our aim is to provide an opportunity for panelists and session participants to discuss and shed light on questions that we as a field are grappling with, such as how dual-identity, emotions, and incentives are linked to exit decisions and ultimately to brainpower gains and losses. The role of artificial intelligence in limiting or encouraging brain drain flows and whether migrant brain drain is a symptom, not a cause, of failed development in some countries will also be discussed. In addition, the panel will open up the questions we have yet to ask from an individual, organizational, technological, or policy perspective.

The debate on brain drains and brain gain remains central to migration discussions, particularly in Nigeria and Africa. This study explored the missing link between the two by reviewing literature conceptually, theoretically, and empirically. Based in the Neo-Classical Theory of Migration, it highlights migration as a rational response to wage and opportunity gaps while emphasizing circular migration’s role in balancing labour markets and fostering development. Key push factors driving migration in Nigeria include poverty, unemployment, insecurity, poor governance, political instability, a weak education sector, corruption, and economic hardship. These factors compel skilled professionals to seek opportunities abroad, leading to brain drain and its negative impacts, such as weakened healthcare and education systems, loss of innovation, and economic stagnation. However, migrants often face challenges in host countries, including underemployment, non-recognition of qualifications, legal hurdles, and socio-economic struggles, forcing many into low-skilled jobs. This study identifies brain circulation as the crucial link between brain drain and brain gain. By facilitating knowledge, skills, and resource exchange between home and host countries, brain circulation enables contributions to development without requiring permanent return. To transform brain, drains into an opportunity for growth, Nigeria and Africa should implement strategic policies that harness brain circulation for innovation, economic progress, and sustainable development.

In the global economy regions fight a two-front “war” to attract young people. On the one hand, they compete against more urban areas because young people leave home to study and do not return to their home region (“brain drain”). On the other hand, they struggle to attract new residents, students and entrepreneurs to their local region (“brain gain”). The context is a student town of a strong industrial region characterized by a net export of young people and an increasing demand for highly qualified labour. The purpose is to gain insight into how student loyalty to a student town may be enhanced. A partial least square path modelling approach is used to estimate a structural equation model of student town loyalty. One finding is that the creation of student town satisfaction has more influence on student town loyalty than reputation building. “Social activity” is the most important loyalty driver. This antecedent is mediated through student town satisfaction and reputation, as well as university college reputation. The town municipalities and the university college should thus be coordinated in their effort to increase student town loyalty to bring down the “brain drain” and increase the “brain gain” in the region.

Recent theoretical work suggests conditions under which a positive probability of migration from a developing country stimulates human capital formation in that country and improves the welfare of migrants and non-migrants alike (Stark et al., 1997, 1998; Stark and Wang, 2002). This 'brain gain' hypothesis contrasts with the received, long-held 'brain drain' argument, which stipulates that the migration of skilled workers depletes the human capital stock and lowers welfare in the sending country (Usher, 1977; Blomqvist, 1986). The 'brain gain' view is that a strictly positive probability of migrating to destinations where the returns to human capital are higher than at origin creates incentives to acquire more human capital in migrant-sending areas.

Beyin göçü, vasıflı bireylerin gelişmekte olan ülkelerden gelişmiş ülkelere göçü anlamına gelmektedir. Vasıflı bireylerin bir ülkeden diğerine göçü, göç veren ülkede ekonomik büyüme üzerinde olumsuz etkiler doğurmakta; işgücü eksikliğine, vergi gelirlerinin azalmasına, yenilik yapma ve teknolojik gelişmelerde geride kalınmasına, gelir eşitsizliğine ve sosyal gerginliklerine neden olabilmektedir. Bu nedenle ülkeler tarafından bir endişe kaynağı olan beyin göçünün önlenmesi ve tersine beyin göçü ve beyin kazanımının teşviki ülkelerin önemli hedefleri arasındadır. Bu hedefler doğrultusunda kullanılan önemli araçlardan biri de vergi politikalarıdır. Bu çalışmanın temel amacı, ülkelerin beyin göçünü önleme ve tersine beyin göçü ile beyin kazanımını teşvik etmede kullandıkları vergi politika araçlarının incelenmesidir. Çalışmada 10 Avrupa ülkesinin beyin göçüne yönelik uygulamış olduğu gelir vergisi teşvikleri incelenmektedir. Sonuç kısmında uygulanan vergi politikalarına yönelik değerlendirmeler yapılmaktadır.

This study seeks to examine Nigeria's approach in engaging its diaspora as part of its response to the challenge of brain drain within the migration and development paradigm. Brain drain, characterised by the large-scale migration of highly skilled professionals from one country to another, has long been seen as undermining Nigeria's human capital, particularly in health, education, and research. Drawing on the push-pull theory, human capital theory, and contemporary concepts of brain circulation and brain gain, the study situates Nigeria's brain drain within the broader global and African migration context. The literature indicates that brain drain is driven by economic uncertainty, poor governance, poor working conditions, insecurity, and a lack of career prospects, whereas the demand for human resources and robust welfare systems in destination countries are strong pull factors for brain drain. On the other hand, Nigeria's diaspora is an important development partner, remitting more than $20 billion annually. The paper discusses Nigeria’s developing infrastructure for diaspora engagement, such as the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, migration policies, labor policies, diaspora bonds, as well as sectoral programs in health, education, and innovation. However, these programs face limitations in their effectiveness in curbing brain drain due to factors such as institutional fragmentation, lack of data, policy incoherence, infrastructure deficit, and economic volatility. According to the study, diaspora engagement is not enough in curbing brain drain in Nigeria unless coupled with domestic retention strategies and governance reforms. For example, a new national talent strategy for Nigeria could encompass aspects such as institutional coordination, diaspora digital platforms, productive investment mechanisms, and circular migration. The conclusion argues that Nigeria could use the brain drain as a development chance by incorporating the engagement with the diaspora into a comprehensive national development strategy instead of considering it a separate action.

This essay is a call for world-systems analysis of education. Increasingly, the field of comparative education is moving toward more sophisticated examinations of education in relationship to economic, political, and social forces. Studies of the ecology of educational institutions and processes, however, often fail to take into account an international context of transactions. To date, most macro studies of education have taken the nation-state as the basic unit of analysis.' An examination of the international forces impinging upon education systems is no less essential than an examination of the international economic order would be to an

Abstract. The flow of foreign loans occupies a critical position in the economic development of the developing and under developed countries. Some writers view it in terms of the “dependency theory”, which states that foreign economic assistance is a tool through which the “center” exploits the “periphery” and so, the latter continues to remain undeveloped. Here, the center is donor and the periphery is the capital-receiving country. Less income levels, resources, inherited poverty, lack of good governance, political instability are some of the reasons for countries to inter into the trap of foreign loans. The article explains various definitions of foreign loans, its varieties and features. It examines into the needs which compels the countries go for foreign loans and also the donors, their characteristics and nature. Further it looks into the implications of foreign loan on the economy, social sector, agriculture, environment and politics of a country. Keywords. Foreign loans, Debt, Development, Economy, Balance of payments, Donors, Social sector, Agriculture, Environment, Politics. JEL. D02, D69, H81, F63.

Explaining the world as a system: can it be done?

Recent theoretical and empirical studies have emphasized the fact that the prospect of international migration increases the expected returns to skills in poor countries, linking the possibility of migrating (brain drain) with incentives to higher education (brain gain). If emigration is uncertain and some of the highly educated remain, such a channel may, at least in part, counterbalance the negative effects of brain drain. Moreover, recent empirical evidence seems to show that temporary migration is widespread among highly skilled migrants (such as Eastern Europeans in Western Europe and Asians in the U.S.). This paper develops a simple tractable overlapping generations model that provides an economic rationale for return migration and which predicts who will migrate and who will return among agents with heterogeneous abilities. We use parameter values from the literature and the data on return migration to simulate the model and quantify the effects of increased openness on human capital and wages of the sending countries. We find that, for plausible values of the parameters, the return migration channel is very important and combined with the incentive channel reverses the brain drain into significant brain gain for the sending country.

Emigrants from Italy and Ireland contributed disproportionately to the age of mass migration. That their departure improved the living standards of those they left behind is hardly in doubt. Nevertheless, a voluminous literature on the selectivity of migrant flows—from both sending and receiving country perspectives—has given rise to claims that migration generates both “brain drains” and “brain gains.” On the one hand, positive or negative selection among emigrants may affect the level of human capital in sending countries. On the other hand, the prospect of emigration and return migration may both spur investment in schooling in source countries. This essay describes the history of emigration from Italy and Ireland during the age of mass migration from these perspectives.

The term ‘intellectual migration’ initially referred to the exodus of European scientists and other professionals to the U.S. in the first half of the twentieth century. Academic and policy debates around issues of ‘brain drain’, ‘brain gain’, and ‘brain circulation’ in recent decades have intensified the usage of this term. A 2015 paper first attempted conceptualising Intellectual Migration as an analytical framework that encompasses a migration spectrum where students to professionals at different life stages move for intellectual pursuits that can advance career development. Li et al. (2021) articulate the framework by elaborating on the underlying key concepts – intellectual capital, intellectual nodes, intellectual gateways, intellectual peripheries – and the role they play in one’s spatial and social mobilities, and connecting internal migration with international migration. This special issue assembles empirical research that addresses issues like the (un)certainty of engaging in intellectual migration, agency-structure dynamics behind migration decisions, and the value of intellectual capital in the migration process. This introductory piece traces the evolution of the intellectual migration conceptualisation while synthesising the findings to affirm the usefulness of the framework in analysing higher-education and highly-skilled migration.

The Israel-Palestine conflict of 2023 encapsulated a year of heightened tensions, recurring violence, and elusive peace prospects. Against a backdrop of historical grievances and territorial disputes, the region witnessed a resurgence of hostilities marked by intermittent clashes, rocket attacks, and retaliatory airstrikes. Amidst escalating violence, both Israeli and Palestinian leadership have faced internal challenges and political turmoil, exacerbating the complexity of reaching a sustainable resolution. The absence of meaningful dialogue and trust-building measures further entrenched the cycle of violence, deepening the humanitarian crisis and exacerbating civilian suffering. Similarly, international actors, including the United Nations and key regional powers, have engaged in diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire and revive peace negotiations. However, deep-seated mistrust and divergent political agendas hindered progress towards a comprehensive peace agreement. As a result, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has resonated far beyond the borders of the Middle East, with reverberations felt even on the continent of Africa. Therefore, this research paper explores a critical analysis and delves into the multifaceted dimensions of the conflict's impact on Africa. Adopting qualitative methods and secondary sources of data, the research finds that the impact of the conflict on Africa ranges from political, economic, humanitarian, and social consequences. The paper concludes that the conflict has detrimental effects on the continent’s social cohesion and political stability. Lastly, the research paper recommends Ending of Settlement Expansion, Negotiation and Dialogue, Two-State Solution, and Promotion of Reconciliation as some of the possible means by which the conflict can come to an end.