Not a Hopeless Case: Philippines’ Brain ‘Drain’ to Brain ‘Gain’

by: Franchesca Calma, Kristine Canlas, Carla Carreon, and Adeline Palo
Since the early seventies the Philippines has been experiencing a ‘brain drain’
phenomenon with the migration of highly skilled professionals and workers from the country for pursuit
of having better working opportunities abroad. In migration discourse, brain drain is considered a ubiquitous
phenomenon, if left uncontrolled, produces a profound socio-economic impact that does not bode well for both
the society and the country. The Philippine Statistical Authority revealed that in 2017, there were 2.339
million overseas Filipino workers (female: 53.66%)—with 20.7% and 9.5% of them hailing from the
CALABARZON area and the National Capital Region, respectively. More than seventy percent (72.8%) of the
OFWs were of ages from 25 to 44 years old. Those who were hired as managers (1.2%), professionals
(8.7%), and technicians (5.9%) accounted for 15.8% of the total, respectively. With this alarming rate of labor
migration of skilled Filipino workers, it seems that this social phenomenon is a hopeless case, but a recent
economic study suggests that there is still a chance to counter brain drain in the country.
A study by the Asian Development Bank stated that more than half of the number of Southeast Asian
immigrants with university degrees who left to work in nation’s part of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), come from the Philippines. As the number of Overseas Filipino
Workers (OFWs) increase, the country experiences a fiscal burden as it loses more human capital in the fields
of medicine, science, engineering, management and education. Without growth and amelioration that could
have been provided by the skillful, publicly trained and educated workforce who left, the country would have
difficulty in achieving economic and social development. Professor of Economics John Gibson and Senior
Economist David McKenzie emphasized in their article “Eight Questions about Brain Drain,” that the issue of
brain drain should be taken very seriously by economists, due to its potential implications not just for a
developing country’s economy, but for both the world’s economy and social sphere. According to these
experts, brain drain could cause a highly detrimental “domino” effect wherein developed nations are
overloaded with highly educated workers, while developing nations of such workers are simultaneously
draining. With brain drain restricting future economic progress of our country, it is crucial for the government to
prevent, or at least manage the amount of Filipino workers who decide to work abroad. Developing countries
must provide more facilities, more occupations, and more opportunities for their citizens to explore higher level
work. Governments of developing countries must also conduct research regarding the causes of brain drain in
the country, which could be identified through its two categories: the push factors and pull factors. The push
factors are the negative characteristics of the home country that form the impetus for intelligent people to
migrate to developed countries. Push factors include unemployment, political instability, economic
underdevelopment, lack of freedom, and poor working conditions. Meanwhile, pull factors are the positive
characteristics of a developed country from which the migrant would like to benefit from, such as higher paying
jobs and a better quality of life. They must then create solutions to mitigate or eliminate these factors causing
dissatisfaction. It is important for these countries to recognize and keep their talent, not through limiting
freedom, but granting better opportunity.
The Philippines has a long history of emigration of skilled persons, especially to the USA. The
destinations have become diversified with opening of opportunities in the Middle East, Canada, Australia and
New Zealand. With country’s record of brain drain, it is clear that the country has a number of qualified laborers
but it is the international countries who are benefitting from their expertise and skills are because there are only
few and limited opportunities offered in the country. This situation deprived the labor pool of much of its
greatest talent having that as their primary reason to work abroad. The brain drain, a social phenomenon, of
the Philippines is never a hopeless case, as long as the country’s emigrants are willing to return to the country
assured that they have a number of opportunities with better labor conditions in their motherland and in return
the Philippines should devise a plan and a course of action to fix this prevalent national issue. And if the
country gets to experience and enjoy the full potential of its labor force to its greatest extent, the alarming rate
of brain drain will never be in hopeless state after all, in fact it may be reversed to as the country’s ‘brain gain’.