Group 3 presents:

BRAIN
DRAIN
 Table of Contents

1. Media
2. Overseas Vietnamese
Community
3. Asia-Pacific countries
4. Policies makers

Presented by GROUP 3
1. MEDIA
Key information

Brain drain misconception

Brain drain in Vietnam: A lack of

action?

Presented by GROUP 3
 KEY INFORMATION
WHAT IS
BRAIN DRAIN?
Brain drain refers to the emigration (out-
migration) of knowledgeable, well-educated, and
skilled professionals from their home country to
another country.
Brain drain occurs most commonly when
individuals leave less developed countries (LDCs)
with fewer opportunities for career advancement,
research, and academic employment and migrate
to more developed countries (MDCs) with more
opportunities. However, it also occurs in the
movement of individuals from one more
developed country to another more developed
country.
Reverse Brain Drain is the case when
professionals decide to return to their home
country after a period of working abroad. When
reverse brain drain happens, the country regains
the worker as well as gains a new abundance of
experience and knowledge received from the time
abroad.
WHY DOES IT
There are both OCCUR?
push and pull factors affecting brain
drain. Pull factors include higher employment rate,
higher salary and a perceived increase in quality of life,
while the push factors are high youth unemployment
and high enterprise death rate.
Brain drain is also encouraged in developing countries
because of “unfriendly, non-motivated, constrained and
non-creative work environments” as compared to
friendly, cooperative and healthy work environments in
developed countries.
WHAT ARE ITS
MAIN EFFECTS?
Brain drain has a socio-economic impact on concerned regions. In the EU, countries such as Romania, Poland, Italy, and Portugal
are especially affected by brain drain, while other countries such as Sweden, Ireland, Estonia, and Denmark notice the opposite
effect, namely brain gain. The main effect is ‘brain waste’. This happens when workers who are highly skilled move to a region
with incomplete or one-sided information on the labor/skill demand and then end up in being unemployed or employed in a job
not requiring their high skills
Brain drain can have a negative impact on the sending region, such as reduction of human capital, limited capacity to innovate,
reduced economic growth, demographic shifts, and a higher cost of public goods. Albeit small, there are positive side-effects as
well, such as return migration, incentives for investment in education and improvement of governance.
In LDCs, this phenomenon is much more common and the loss is much more substantial. There is also a loss that occurs in MDCs,
but this loss is less substantial because MDCs generally see an emigration of these educated professionals as well as an
immigration of other educated professionals.
KEY INFORMATION WHAT CAN BE DONE TO DEAL WITH
SUCH PROBLEM?
A Study of Harvard business review
The first imperative for policy makers is to create opportunity and a critical mass of the educated and entrepreneurial. Taiwan’s example is
particularly instructive. Aided by a growing economy, Taiwan has been able to stem the flight of its top talent. The country forged business-friendly
policies that encouraged entrepreneurs to stay and emigrants to return. It founded the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park in 1980, with the goal
of replicating the density of talent found in Silicon Valley and other hotbeds of technological innovation.

Networking with the diaspora and offering them incentives to return is another of Taiwan’s strategies. Back in the early 1970s the government
established the National Youth Council, which tracks emigres in a database, advertises Taiwan-based jobs, and provides travel subsidies. When these
migrants return, they bring with them the expertise they acquired abroad.

Devoting resources to education can be tricky when a high percentage of graduates leave because suitable jobs for their skill level are not available.
Vietnam took an interesting approach to this dilemma, focusing on lower-level education that equipped the future workforce to take the jobs
available, which helped build a stable economy that could launch further growth.

Quality of life is important. Taiwan, for instance, subsidized Western-style housing and hosted international conferences that polished its image and
gave scientists and entrepreneurs access to the international community.
 BRAIN DRAIN
Q: You claim that there is an upside to brain drain: that migration of high-
MISCONCEPTION skilled professionals can, in fact, have social and economic benefits for the
home countries. Could you explain?

COULD A: (…) Students and emigrants who gain footing in the host country may
engage with their home countries through business visits or even short-term

BRAIN DRAIN stays, if not returning permanently. We call these types of home-host
interactions brain linkage. Engaged, high-skilled migrants who create such
bridging between the host and home countries significantly enhance the social

HAVE BENEFITS? and economic fabric of the developing home countries.

A LOOK AT ASIA
Q&A with Gi-Wook Shin, director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific
Research Center and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli
Institute for International Studies. Written by Noa Ronkin.
In considering brain linkage, we must shift from a view that regards labor
primarily as human capital to a new model of labor as social capital. (…)
when they [educated professionals] stay engaged with the home countries,
these countries gain from the productive capacity embodied in the ties and
networks linking many individuals and organizations. Social capital provides
less tangible but equally important benefits, such as enhanced trust and
cooperation, information sharing, and improved access to innovations.
Therefore, in a global market economy, given the importance of transnational
social capital, developing countries should focus less on preventing brain drain
and more on encouraging brain circulation — that is, permanent return
migration of young people sent for education abroad — and brain linkage.

Presented by GROUP 3
 BRAIN DRAIN “The focus should be on how to attract those people to engage, not how
MISCONCEPTION to prevent them from leaving.“
Q: What did you find in your research that supports this argument?

A: We looked at empirical cases and policies in Asia that demonstrate that high-skilled migrant professionals actually make significant contributions to their home
countries, beyond monetary remittances.
(...) Consider India, which is now the second-largest provider of international students to the United States after China. As in China and Taiwan, strong government
development initiatives and waves of liberalization of regulations helped promote brain circulation. The significant role of Indian returnees in building the Indian
information technology industry since the 1990s is well documented. India’s highly skilled diaspora also played an especially active role in establishing formal networks
that promoted brain linkages.
That is why developing countries must continue to invest in higher education. Unless there is a critical mass of educated professionals in the home country, brain
circulation and linkage would not be possible.

Q: What are some of the policy recommendations that you make based on your
findings?

A: (…) Let young people go and get their education and training, but identify the
economic and social factors that are important in attracting or motivating migrant
high-skilled professionals to return or engage with their home country, then design
initiatives to cultivate talent for national development by implementing brain
circulation and brain linkage policies. The focus should be on how to attract those
people to engage, not how to prevent them from leaving.

Presented by GROUP 3
 BRAIN DRAIN
MISCONCEPTION
The perception that skilled migration damages the source country is wrong for three
reasons:

WHY SOUTHEAST The supply of skilled workers is not fixed; workers respond to labor market opportunities
by accumulating more and different skills, and the possibility to migrate is itself a powerful

ASIA SHOULDN’T incentive for individuals to invest in human capital.

WORRY ABOUT Not everyone who acquires new skills with the intent to migrate will be successful.

BRAIN DRAIN?
By Elisabetta Gentile Those who emigrate are not "lost:" when they return, they bring home new ideas, skills and
financial assets. Even when they do not return, they form diaspora networks that open doors
to global labor markets, trade, and business opportunities.

Presented by GROUP 3
BRAIN DRAIN
MISCONCEPTION In the period 2000-2007, the U.S. dramatically expanded the availability of visas for migrant
nurses and their families. Consequently, the number of nursing graduates in the Philippines, the
largest exporter of nurses in the world, grew from 9,000 to 70,000, and not all of them could

migrate to the United States, resulting in a net increase in the supply of nurses in the Philippines .

CASE STUDIES
The mid-1990s internet boom led to a surge in demand for computer scientists in the U.S. (…)
Consumers in both countries [The U.S and India] benefited from larger overall IT output, leading
to lower prices for IT products. The combined income of both countries rose by 0.36 percent
because of this flow of IT professionals from India to the U.S. The computer science workers
who were unsuccessful couldn’t migrate to the U.S. joined the rapidly growing IT sector in India,
and by the early 2000s those who had migrated had returned with newly acquired skills and
connections. This brought the U.S.-led boom to India, and by the mid-2000s India had surpassed
the U.S. in software exports.
 A professor at Hoa Sen University in HCM City who shot to fame when he taught a class on innovation wearing
BRAIN DRAIN IN a pair of shorts has come up short at the hand of some bureaucrats’ rigid interpretation of regulations.
VIETNAM: A LACK The professor, also famous for encouraging students to think outside the box, was chosen to fill the vacant
position of the university’s chancellor by its board of directors, but the municipal education department vetoed
OF ACTION? the move, citing a “lack of experience”.
Dr. Trương Nguyện Thành has since decided to part ways with the university, returning to a position he held
earlier in a prestigious school in the United States.

“DO WE WANT TO
RESERVE OR
ADVANCE OUR Director of the Education Ministry’s Higher Education Department, Nguyễn Thị Kim Phụng,
BRAIN DRAIN?” admitted that the regulation on appointing university chancellors has its limitations. “The
regulation is not suitable for some cases and it causes difficulties in choosing talented people
for such positions,” she told the Vietnam Television.

There are so many factors that have to be assessed in a prospective candidate for a university
chancellor’s position, including professional capacity, educational background, experience,
ethical standpoint and so on, but to stand rigid on the minimum five years of experience in a
management position, either as faculty dean or the head of a university, has not served the
purpose of the rule, which is to get properly qualified people in top positions. Instead, in this
particular instance, it has done the opposite – rejected an obviously qualified candidate.

Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Kim Phụng

Presented by GROUP 3
 BRAIN DRAIN IN
VIETNAM: A LACK
OF ACTION?

(...) Thành’s case highlights shortcomings in Việt Nam’s policies to

attract talents from overseas to work in the country. The professor said
in a Facebook post that he has set aside his dream of supporting the
development of Việt Nam’s higher education to return to the US and
take up his old job at the University of Utah.

There is still a big gap between our policies and reality. Such cases show
that many preferential policies adopted can run into a brick wall of
rigidity.
We have to remember that ultimately, in such failures, it is our students,
our younger generations that lose out.
We should understand why only one of the 15 winners of the “Road to
Mountain Olympia’s Peak" quiz shows has come back to Việt Nam to
work after graduating from universities in Australia. Many overseas
students, especially research fellows, choose not to return to Việt Nam,
so that they can work in really professional environments, where they do
not have to constantly think of making ends meet or rely on
unprofessional, non-meritorious factors for career advancement.
Dr. Trương Nguyên Thành
(...) Professor Thành’s case should be taken as an opportunity for
policymakers to review regulations as well as their interpretation. We need
flexible laws that can be interpreted and implemented in ways that would
meet their actual objectives.
Surely, reversing the brain drain is a no brainer; as is attracting talents
from around the world to contribute to preparing and developing our
country to succeed in the Industry 4.0 era. The lesson is fundamental: If
we don’t learn from our mistakes, we are doomed to repeat them.

Presented by GROUP 3
BRAIN DRAIN IN
VIETNAM: A LACK
OF ACTION?
Plugging the
brain drain
Interview with Pierre Darriulat, 72, one of the
world's leading physicists. The former research
director at the European Organization for
Nuclear Research (CERN). He has contributed
to Vietnamese universities and research
institutions in many different forums.
“The question is: are we doing all we can to
create a good research environment and
good universities by 2020? I think we are
doing a lot, but obviously we are not doing
enough.”
What makes you say so?
Many good students want to study abroad and don't want to return home to work. They can earn
much better salaries and enjoy much better working conditions elsewhere.
The other reason is that nobody expects them to come back to Vietnam. Nobody in Vietnam is telling
them that they are needed back home. Nobody is waiting for them. Nobody says “you should come
back.” When Ngo Bao Chau won the Fields medal, everyone began talking about this “good”
overseas Vietnamese. There are thousands of good Vietnamese students abroad. But, until they win a
Nobel Prize or a Fields medal, nobody here acknowledges their existence.
What's preventing anything from changing?
The first obstacle, which is a little bit painful, is a lack of action. Why is it so difficult to change
things when we know what the problems are?
The second obstacle is bureaucracy. I have faced this matter, many times, in universities and I think
it should be addressed. I have met so many administrative difficulties. Bureaucrats never take
scientific interests into account.
What do you feel is the greatest obstacle to enticing
these students to come home?
There needs to be a place for him to teach younger students. That is the main problem. But, nothing
has been done about it. I see some people come home with PhDs and no one offers them a decent job
in the standard university system, what a waste of talent and money.
We've known this for so many years, why should we repeat it all the time? I feel that nobody cares
about young scientists. The government has no specific plan for using their talent. We are basically
missing scientific policy in the country. There is no scientific policy.
Credits and Suggestions 3. Why Southeast Asia shouldn't worry about 'brain drain'
- Link: https://rb.gy/eydyoc

for further reading 4. Preventing and Reversing Brain Drain

- Link: https://rb.gy/fpiet9

5. Could brain drain have benefits? A look at Asia

- Link: https://rb.gy/3tkbrs

6. Brain Drain Vs Brain Gain

1. Why Does Brain Drain Occur? - Link: https://aer.eu/brain-drain/
- Link: https://www.thoughtco.com/brain-drain-1435769
7. The Myth of Brain Drain: How Emigration Can Help Poor Countries
2. Brain Drain: Meaning, Factors and Measures - Link: https://rb.gy/9b1qc6
- Link: https://rb.gy/vukvvu
8. Mass migration: Who benefits and why?
3. Causes, Challenges and Prospects of Brain Drain: The Case of Eritrea
- Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21923867
- Link: https://rb.gy/nh2sj4
9. Plugging the brain drain
- Link: https://rb.gy/kgcxmg
4. Brain drain from developing countries: how can brain drain be
converted into wisdom gain? 10. Do we want to reverse or advance our brain drain?
- Link: https://rb.gy/3kqkfx - Link: https://rb.gy/klv7dz

Presented by GROUP 3
 Key factors
2. OVERSEAS Effects of brain drain
VIETNAMESE
Case studies
COMMUNITY

Presented by GROUP 3

Legislation
Legislation that effectively
promotes scientific
research, non-restrictive
immigration laws, and a
lower risk of political
instability, all decrease brain
drain. This suggests that
more open and forward-
looking societies better
prevent domestic talent
from leaving the country.
Presented by GROUP 3
Key factors of brain drain
Agility Education Health Pay Motivation
● The agility and The quality of an A country’s health Worker motivation is a
Relatively speaking,
adaptability of companies education system is an infrastructure is a key factor in reducing
remuneration levels
to market changes as important factor in significant determinant brain drain, it also
appear to have only
well as inclusive increasing the inflow of of talent attractiveness. contributes to
a marginal impact on
corporate values also overseas talent, or brain This may be the case increasing brain gain. It
the attractiveness of
reduce brain drain. The gain. This may be an because a workforce sends a strong signal to
countries to foreign
agility exhibited by indication that highly that enjoys overall overseas talent that, for
talent.
companies may be skilled staff consider the healthy lives tends to example, firms in a
perceived as a trait of quality of schools for their remain in their country particular country offer
innovation thus attracting children when making a of origin thus reducing a work environment
overseas talent while also decision whether or not to the need to attract highly conducive to
encouraging locals to relocate. foreign personnel. maintaining strong
remain in their home employee morale.
country.
 Experts and policymakers, however, are concerned that
Negative Effects investing in higher education in less-developed countries may
lead to a “brain drain,” where highly-educated students and
Over the last two decades, the development
professionals leave their home countries and never return home.
community has heightened its focus on higher
The 2016 Kauffman report on international science, technology,
education, recognizing that it can boost a
engineering, and math students in the US showed that among a
country’s capacity to participate in an increasingly
random sample of 2,322 foreign doctoral students surveyed,
knowledge-based global economy and accelerate
48% wished to stay in the US after graduation, while only 12%
economic growth. The value addition to
wanted to leave and 40% were undecided. Because students
economies expected from higher education
usually move from developing to developed countries to study,
includes technology advances, research and
brain drain is more problematic for developing countries. Given
development for innovation, enhanced
accelerated talent flows around the world and the increasing
entrepreneurship, job creation, and higher
integration of less-developed countries into global value chains,
productivity, among others.
the negative impact of brain drain could be further amplified.
 The migration of high-skilled professionals from developing countries
may indeed create brain drain for the home countries. Yet, they can
also significantly enhance the social and economic development of
their home countries beyond monetary remittances, regardless of
whether or not they return home, through “brain circulation” or “brain
linkage.”

Positive Effects Brain circulation refers to a situation where people return to their
home country after being educated abroad and contribute to the
development with educational and work experience obtained
abroad. They can facilitate brain power both geographically and
intellectually. Brain linkage takes shape when some choose to
remain in the host country after education but engage with their
home countries through business visits or short-term stays,
fostering interactions between home and host countries.
 CASE STUDIES
People’s Republic of China
Since China’s “open door” policy began after 1978, overseas education
expanded rapidly during the 1980s, which included thousands of students going
to the US annually. However, less than 10% of students returned home during
the early years. Among PhD graduates in science and engineering in 1995,
88% of those from the People’s Republic of China remained in the US for employ
ment.
COWORKERS
When the ICT industry was established and demand for new services and
business was created, many Chinese who were educated and working abroad
began returning during the 1990s. By 2007, the overall rate of return had
increased to 30% and accelerated as China’s economy offered more and better
opportunities for emigrants with overseas experience. While the government
primarily targeted brain circulation in its early policies, lack of state resources for
incentivizing permanent return led the government to offer
temporary return options for its diaspora, encouraging Chinese abroad to return
only for short periods of time but still contribute while living abroad.

As China underwent rapid economic growth, the government invested in a changing

combination of both permanent and temporary programs. For example, a survey on
high-tech firms in Beijing’s Zhongguancun Science Park showed that returnee
entrepreneurs create a significant spillover effect that promotes innovation in other
local high-tech firms. Another study showed that returnees in high-tech zones,
compared to people in the zones who had not been overseas, were more likely to
import technology and capital and use that technology to target the domestic
market.
Republic of Korea
During the 1950s and 1960s, large numbers of highly-educated people left South Korea to
pursue their studies abroad, with very few returning home. A weak industrial base, poor
research and development infrastructure, and limited capacities of higher education institutions
offered neither employment opportunities nor incentives for return.

Only since the 1970s when the South Korean economy began to take off with strong industry
development strategies, the government was able to recruit back many ethnic Korean scientists
living in industrial countries, especially in the US. Some 27,000 PhD holders returned to South
Korea between 1982 and 2003. Among PhD graduates in science and engineering in the US in
1995, only 11% of those from South Korea remained in the US with the rest returning back
home. Government-endowed, public-sector R&D institutions brought 1,002 scientists and
engineers back home under their own sponsorship during the 1981-1986 period.

Following the 1997–1998 financial crisis, the South Korean government supplemented its brain
circulation strategies with brain linkage efforts, establishing worldwide business networks
among the Korean diaspora to engage them in the country’s development. The Overseas
Korean Foundation was set up in 1997, followed by the Overseas Koreans Law in 1998 that
entitled overseas Koreans to visa-free entry, longer stays, ability to buy and sell land and other
properties, and to work in the country in high-skilled professional or managerial jobs. The
government also eased restrictions for foreign direct investment by foreigners in general, and
by overseas Koreans in particular.

Presented by GROUP 3
 a. Brain Drain in Vietnam
In a report from Migration Policy Institute in 2015 by Karl Miller, among
100,000 Vietnamese leaving the country each year, labour migration has a

The case of Vietnam strong increase. Between 2000 and 2010, labour migration had an annual
growth rate of 5.5%. On average, about 90,000 Vietnamese now leave
Vietnam each year to work on a contract overseas. There were 552,000
migrants from Vietnam that were tertiary-educated in 2011, which meant
nearly one-fifth of the total migrants had finished education in college or
university, the number must be increasing now when there are more and more
students going overseas for their education.

Kate Miller also revealed that between 2000 and 2014, enrolment of
Vietnamese students in American educational institutions got an impressive
growth rate at more than 700% though the U.S. is one of the most expensive
destinations, putting Vietnam at sixth in the top 10 countries of foreign
students in the States with 29,101 students in December 2016. With that high
number of overseas students, there is a sad truth: nearly 70% of them do not
come back home after graduation in 2011, according to Vietnam News, and
that percentage seems not likely to drop down now.

Presented by GROUP 3
 Media and experts tried to find the answer to why young Vietnamese are leaving the
b. Causes
country. In general, there were several typical causes:
People are losing their trust in the
government and they want better quality
of life. As a country with a high
corruption rate, Vietnam is becoming
less preferable for students when they
decide their post-graduation life.
Imagine that you have to pay someone
a big amount of money to get hired into
an office or pay bribes to Vietnamese
officials to get your project finished, you
will likely be discouraged from going
back home. People are losing their trust
in the government and they want better
quality of life. As a country with a high
corruption rate, Vietnam is becoming
less preferable for students when they
decide their post-graduation life.
Imagine that you have to pay someone
a big amount of money to get hired into
an office or pay bribes to Vietnamese
officials to get your project finished, you
will likely be discouraged from going
back home.
In the globalisation era, transactions
Life quality is also considerable.
and interdependence between countries
First, the Vietnamese education
grow, meaning that levels of money,
system is still struggling to reform,
ideas, messages, business or people
especially in higher education
crossing borders are getting higher.
which is criticized as “old-
fashioned” and “impractical” by
The appearance of international
experts and employers.
institutions like the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) or World Trade
Second, pollution in Vietnam is
Organization (WTO) or numerous
getting more serious. While air
agreements made by governments also
pollution in two big cities Hanoi
reduce barriers in trade, investment and
and Ho Chi Minh is often
capital flows, bringing more
measured as “unhealthy”, the
opportunities for people who want to do
catastrophe of sea pollution due
their own business somewhere away
to steel production of a foreign
from home.
company in central Vietnam in
2016 has increased the number of
With the expansion of markets and the
fishermen leaving their home for
appearance of multinational companies,
making ends meet in big cities or
there are more opportunities for all
becoming export labour, also
citizenships.
raising health risks in people.

A matter of
controversy
Does “Road to Mount Olympia
provide talents to Australia?
Presented by GROUP 3
Most of the winners of ‘Road to Olympia’
leave Vietnam for Australia where they
study and stay after graduating.
Nguyen Song Hien, a PhD student at
On an education forum, people wrote
Newcastle University in Australia said it
sarcastic remarks, saying that ‘Road to
would be better to raise the question
Olympia’ needs to be removed, because
whether the Vietnamese government is
it provides Vietnamese talents to
willing to make investments to attract
Australia, and causes a brain drain in
talents from other countries.
Vietnam.
Another question is whether Vietnam’s
Le Huu Lap, former deputy director of the
education is capable of training talented
Posts and Telecommunications Institute
students in the fields which require
of Technology (PTIT), commented that
international standards.
young people want to seek the best
working and living conditions. Many of
them cannot find good conditions in
According to Hien, many friends of his who
obtained doctorate overseas returned to
Vietnam.
Vietnam and could not live on the modest
salaries. And the working environment did
He pointed out that not only the winners
not allow them to promote their ability.
of Road to Olympia, but many other
Vietnamese students also study abroad
Therefore, they had to leave for Australia
again.
and tend to stay overseas if they can.
Therefore, the topic for discussion is not
how to retain the winners of Road to
Olympia, but how to prevent brain drain.
Credits and Suggestions 3. No easy solution to plugging ‘brain drain’ from Vietnam

for further reading -

-
Publisher: Viet Nam News
Credit: Nguyen Trang Hai Anh
- Link: https://rb.gy/h9jnt2

4. Vietnamese talents: Leave or stay

1. Should you be worried about brain drain
- Publisher: Tuoi Tre News
- Publisher: Development Asia
- Credit: Do Nguyen Tuan Duy
- Credit: Vu Pham Tuan Anh
- Link: https://rb.gy/fbezuj
- Link: https://rb.gy/p9e4tb

2. Does Vietnam’s TV show ‘Road to Olympia help provide talents for

5. What drives brain drain and brain gain?
Australia
- Publisher: IMD
- Publisher: vietnamnet
- Credit: Bach Thao An
- Credit: Le Thi Ngan Ha
- Link: https://rb.gy/y2xvfy
- Link: https://rb.gy/3ti0di

Presented by GROUP 3
3. POLICY
MAKERS

Presented by GROUP 3
 Negative effects of brain drain on the countries

Brain drain is one of the earliest phenomena associated with

It is argued that brain drain robs poorer nations of research and
globalisation, which has significant adverse effects at the local level. The
innovation potential, thereby limiting the growth and
departure of skilled workers can weaken developing countries,
development of local academic teaching and research institutions,
especially smaller ones, by depriving them of important skills and
as well as other public sector institutions. With fewer skilled
workforce. This can prevent or limit innovation, business growth and
migrants, developing countries might also benefit from fewer
national development.
investments, further entrenching this problem.

Development can be particularly impeded by the outflow of

professionals in the health, education and agricultural sectors. The
Research on migration patterns between the 1960s and 1990s
impact varies based on the demographics and level of development of
indicates that high levels of skilled migration contributed to
countries.
slowing the economic growth and development of sending
Brain drain is also criticised for producing a fiscal burden on the country
countries, increasing inequality and poverty.
of origin as it loses out on the skills of a publicly trained and educated
workforce.
 Positive effects of brain drain on the countries
However, a 2015 World Bank report on African doctors argues
that this fiscal burden is often exaggerated. Looking at the
migration patterns of African doctors and where they were
trained, this study found that the complexity of individual
migrants’ education and trajectories belies a simple situation
where highly skilled migrants are trained in their country of
origin and immediately after graduating leave to work in the
country of destination.
This schema does not accurately depict actual migration patterns
where migrants are born in country A, educated in country B and
live and work in country C.
Furthermore, this report also found that not all highly skilled
migrants educated in their country of origin left immediately
after graduation, implying that countries can sometimes benefit
from this group before they emigrate.
 To prevent brain drain and its negative effects on local development, governments of sending countries first
need to address the key structural and institutional contextual factors that push skilled professionals to
emigrate in the first place, including human rights and civil liberties.

Some governments take a more restrictive approach to preventing brain drain: in Iraq, for example,
graduates from medical school were not given their diplomas or transcripts to ensure that they remained in
the country and worked in the national medical system. There are more cooperative approaches where
countries work with the diaspora to ensure that effective exchange enables brain circulation or brain gain.

One way that the diaspora can be a positive force is through the return of skilled professionals to their
How governments countries of origin: brain circulation. The Thai government, for example, has been implementing the
‘Reverse Brain Drain Project’ over the last few decades to counter the flow of skilled professionals, which

can mitigate the has promoted the return of Thai professionals to positions in Thailand.

These professionals have also been used to facilitate and coordinate technology transfer, by recruiting both
negative effects of highly skilled and experienced professionals as well as recent graduates who may not have as much
experience but have promising research potential.

brain drain? Diaspora networks can also be used without migrants returning to sending countries, by leveraging them to
work on projects or businesses locally. One excellent example of an efficient diaspora network is
GlobalScot, an invitation-only network of high-powered Scots from all over the world who use their
expertise and influence as antennae, bridges and springboards to generate projects in Scotland.

Presented by GROUP 3
 Governments invest in research centres
As the 2007 OECD report Gaining from Migration notes, however, it is primarily upper-to-middle income countries
who benefit from diaspora networks and returning skilled migrants, while poorer countries continue to lose their
more skilled workers.

Countries can allay the negative effects of brain drain and promote brain gain or brain circulation by investing in
local research centres and institutions and by adequately supporting researchers. Additionally, industrialised
countries can promote migration programmes and regulations that encourage the return of migrants after their
studies, or after a short period of time working in the country of study or a third country.

DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service, gives a grant to finishing PhDs from developing countries so that,
when they go back to their country of origin, they have some money to buy equipment and conduct research.
Sending countries can also mitigate brain drain through programmes that finance studies abroad, while
simultaneously forcing their internationally educated nationals to return.

To alleviate the fiscal burden that is believed to be created by brain drain, some propose levying a tax against
migrants, to be collected by the receiving country and sent to the sending country. However, this proposal has
proven difficult to implement and complicated to administer. Scholars continue to debate how such a framework
could be effective and implementable.

Presented by GROUP 3
 Diaspora Programmes

Alternative definitions of brain drain By focusing on policies that promote Developing countries’ universities
focus on migration that is not ‘offset’ the contributions of the diaspora, can be important actors in that
by other factors such as remittances, either directly or indirectly, and respect, through diaspora
knowledge exchange, trade and whether through returns or programmes that allow academics to
investments. When evaluating the collaboration, sending countries can return to their country of origin and
impact of migration, and whether also benefit from migration through partnerships that facilitate
brain gain occurs, it is therefore the phenomena of brain gain and collaborative arrangements between
important to take into account the brain circulation. academics established in the North
positive impact that highly skilled and universities in their home
migration can have on both sending country.
and receiving countries.

Presented by GROUP 3 3
 Diaspora Networks
A moderate amount of brain
drain can benefit a country of
origin because it results in
One way of mitigating the impact
more educated workers: the
of brain drain is through the role
possibility of emigrating
of diasporas, who can benefit
pushing the population in
sending countries in several ways.
sending countries to pursue
Migrants working in Silicon
more education. This benefit
Valley, for example, have forged
would require a certain
professional ethnic groups to
number of educated workers
support other migrants in their
to remain in the country.
work and technological
development. Universities in
Diaspora and ethnic networks
developing countries have also
can lead to brain gain by
actively participated in diaspora
boosting investments and
networks.
exchange in both countries of
origin and destination by
migrants leveraging their
knowledge of both countries. AGE GROUP

Presented by GROUP 3
 Coupled with government initiatives to
promote research and development, and to
attract international businesses and forge
Elizabeth Chacko’s 2007 study on
linkages with richer countries, returning
the impact of highly skilled
migrants have played a strong role in
migrants returning to India
establishing these two cities as leading
highlights their contributions to
technological hubs.
making Bangalore and Hyderabad
‘emerging niche world cities’ with a
While some lament the financial burden
strong foothold in the global IT
that skilled professionals place on their
sector. Transnational skilled
country of origin by using their publicly
migrants returning to India bring
funded skills elsewhere, migrants also
with them ‘knowledge, expertise,
contribute significantly to the former
access to global networks and
through remittances. For smaller and
capital’ as well as ‘international
poorer countries, remittances can constitute
sensibility’.
a large portion of the gross domestic
product and can significantly contribute to
local development.

Presented by GROUP 3
 Vietnamese labour and skilled migration
within the Asian migration context
Even within the skilled migrant group, there are other sub-groups such as
those who have studied in a foreign country but migrate for work in another
country, or those with a Vietnamese education background who seek to work
in a foreign country. In addition, like other government reports on the
While attending to
statistics of international labour migration which are grouped in one type
(e.g. DIAC, 2010a, 2010b, 2011a, 2011b; MOLISA, 2008, 2009), current migrants’ voices is essential
studies are unable to generate different interpretations of the actual motives
and complexities in skilled migrants’ lives. While the number of self-initiated to understand the meaning
skilled migrants is not always properly or well recorded in the Vietnamese
government’s reports, the outflows of two-step migrants on the world’s scale of mobilities, current
are increasing, particularly to the five top skilled migrantreceiving countries:
the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia (Hawthorne, 2005) research on Vietnamese
skilled migration is unable
In other words, extant research on Vietnamese migration does not involve a
proper examination of social, political and economic transformations as to address such a demand
well as migration policies in receiving societies. Further, most studies on
labour migration in Vietnam tend to be narrowly-focused on unskilled
because of the emphasis on
migration because as mentioned earlier, labour export is one of the migration by Asians as an
government’s strategic ways to solve unemployment, increase income and
participate in the global market. As such, by taking Vietnam as the sending amorphous group.
country’s perspective and examining particular classes of migrants
separately, future research can avoid beclouding distinctive features among
different migrant groups in receiving countries and characterize major
migration trends and patterns among Vietnamese skilled migrants more
comprehensively.
Credits and Suggestions
for further reading

3. Policy responses to the international mobility of skilled labour

1. Conceptualizing Re-expatriation Intentions of Vietnamese returnees
- Publisher: International Labour Office
- Publisher: Researchgate.net
- Credit: Doan Ngoc Thuy
- Credit: Dang Mai Khanh
- Link: bit.ly/3hf0Wy5
- Link: bit.ly/3h4BRai

2. The research landscape of current Vietnamese skilled migration

4. Is the brain drain always negative?
- Publisher: openriver.winona.edu
- Publisher: universityworldnews.com
- Credit: Le Thi Van Khanh
- Credit: Hoang Minh Anh Tho
- Link: bit.ly/3x9KIgw
- Link: bit.ly/3qwuCuM

Presented by GROUP 3
4. Reverse brain drain in taiwan

ASIA - Reverse brain drain in south

korea
PACIFIC
Skilled migration to Australia
COUNTRIES
Reverse brain drain in china
 1. REVERSE BRAIN DRAIN
IN TAIWAN
A brief introduction

The brain drain that Taiwan experienced from the 1950s to the 1970s has worked in
reverse since the 1980s. The increase in the number of returning Taiwanese has been
accompanied by a growing demand for non-indigenous global talent to work in various
professional positions. Although the Taiwan government has been very effective in
establishing successful economic policies and creating a sense of prosperity that is
attractive to global talent, it has restricted its recruitment efforts mainly to overseas
Taiwanese. Furthermore, Taiwan’s peripheral position in the global power structure and
the obsession of Taiwanese companies with controlling costs has created sharp ethnic
divisions within the labor force.

Presented by GROUP 3
 From Brain Drain to Brain Circulation and
Global Talent Scouting

The increasing number of returning professionals to Asian countries is In an earlier paper, Saxenian (2000) observed that returning Taiwanese

causing a shift in the perspective of professional migration research, from professionals were ‘pushed’ to return to their homeland due to limited

that of “brain drain” to “brain circulation” and “brain exchange”. Some economic opportunities in the US resulting from glass ceilings and an

researchers now argue that professional migration from developing to economic recession. Many of those who returned to Taiwan are now

developed countries is best viewed as temporary loss, since in the long referred to as ‘astronauts’ who travel regularly between Taiwan and US

run it leads to greater mobility and resource exchanges that benefits the to research new companies and investment opportunities and who

developing nation. Saxenian (2002, 2005) further describes how benefit career-wise by serving as economic development agents

returning Taiwanese, Chinese and Indian professionals in the 1990s and linking the two countries. In this regard, developing countries such as

2000s used professional and personal networks in their home and host Taiwan are thought to provide equal, if not better, economic

countries in a manner that benefits both sides. opportunities for returning professionals when compared to developed
countries in the West.

Presented by GROUP 3
2. Reverse Brain Drain
in South Korea

Presented by GROUP 3
 Reverse Brain Drain in Korea: An Overview
Like many other Asian countries, Korea had a serious brain drain problem. By the
mid 1960s, there was a large pool of Korean scientists and engineers that remained
in foreign countries, primarily in the United States.
What characterized Korea's brain drain, as seen in the United States case, was non-
returning students whose academic or professional training was completed, rather
than the emigration of high-level manpower that had obtained advanced degrees
within Korea. Significantly, aggregate overseas Korean "brains" outnumbered those
in Korea.
The first attempt of systematic repatriation began in 1966 when KIST, a
multidisciplinary R & D institute for industrial technology, (…) started to recruit a
group of eighteen senior level scientists/engineers from America and West
Germany. The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the central office of
Korea's RBD policy, began to sponsor repatriation in 1968.
Presented by GROUP 3
But the situation is quite different now. The preceding two and a half
decades have witnessed an exponential growth in repatriation. Since the
mid-1980s, in particular, there has been a growing concern about
homecoming among Korean graduate students abroad. Certainly, the
domestic employment market situation has dramatically changed: In many
areas, it is no longer a seller's market but a buyer's, especially for those fresh
graduates with Ph.D.'s, although individual area of specialty may strengthen
bargaining power.
A member of the first generation of Korea's RBD, who quit his job at
Dupont's central lab to work at KIST in 1969, clearly points out the
difference.

The difference
“I, myself, as well as other members in our group (the first
group of scientists/ engineers ever repatriated in Korea in
the late 1960s to work at KIST) were adventurous,
idealistic, and nationalistic too. We were not afraid to take
chances, and we were real “chance(risk)-takers.” But now
the situation is very different-for those without some kind
of social or established family backgrounds, it is very
difficult to return home for employment even though they
want to. Those who have such “re-entry chances” will
return without any “chance(risk)-taking elements”, and
those without them will stay abroad. Now it's a different
ball game?”
Presented by GROUP 3
Why are so many Korean "brains" heading
home recently?
Certainly, Korea's improved economic situation with expanded employment opportunities
may be a factor. (…) Given the structural changes the Korean economy is currently
experiencing, a shift from the cheap labor-low skill based economy to a more technology-
intensive one, an inducement of high level manpower may be a natural outcome, and this
demand-pull repatriation will increase in the near future. However, an equally important
factor is the Korean government's organized efforts, which not only provided funding and
administrative support, but also empowered scientists and engineers through various
kinds of policy measures. Without direct government involvement via full-fledged policy
supports from the very outset of Korea's repatriation in the 1960s, and without Korea's
particular form of political system facilitating an interventionist government role, Korea's
RBD would have been much slower, less successful, and more sporadic.
 3. Skilled migration to Australia

Presented by GROUP 3
The skilled
migration program
Since the 1980s, the government has developed
policies designed to target migrants with experience in areas
where there is a skill shortfall through its general skilled
migration program. In 2004 05 record numbers of skilled
migrants were granted visas, accounting for about 60 per cent
of the entire migration program.
The current skills in demand are listed in DIMAs Skilled
Occupation List (SKOL). Generally an applicant must be under
45, with an occupation listed on the SKOL, with enough points
to pass the points test and with a fairly proficient level of
English.
Under the skilled or independent migrant selection system,
the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL) identifies
occupations to be allocated extra points under the points test.
IT skills featured strongly in the past (they were dropped off
the list in 2003), and now health professionals and tradespeople
are currently in demand.
Presented by GROUP 3
The current skills points list shows occupations acceptable for permanent migration and the
number of points allocated to these occupations.
There are a variety of relevant visas that potential migrants can apply for under the skilled
migration program, depending on whether you are applying for an onshore visa,
an offshore visa or for a skilled visa as a New Zealand resident. There are also specific
requirements to encourage successful business people to settle permanently in Australia and
develop new or existing businesses.
Temporary or Permanent?
Another change in focus to migration patterns over the last few years has been the change in
emphasis from permanent settlement to temporary migration to Australia, particularly by
business and skilled migrants.
Many of these temporary migrants go on to settle permanently and add to Australia s brain
gain. In fact, there is a growing link between temporary migration and permanent migration,
with a temporary visa often being the first step towards permanent migration. The
government is encouraging such migration with various measures, including
an announcement that from 1 November 2005, overseas students will be able to apply, on
completion of their studies in Australia, for an Occupational Trainee Visa to undertake up to
12 months of supervised on-the-job training in their area of expertise. Employers will also
be able to offer overseas students practical employment experience on an occupational
trainee visa where this leads to registration in their chosen profession in Australia.
 4. Reverse Brain Drain in China

Presented by GROUP 3
 Economic pull forces in China
Career and economic opportunities in China were most frequently
recollected by returnees as having pulled them to repatriate, and were most
frequently rated by students as important to their intent to return. The
opportunities included: better career and professional opportunities, a job
offer, demand for their skills, economic growth, access to large local
markets, opportunities to start a business and implement new technology,
and lower operating costs than in host countries.
To a lesser extent, the opportunity for professional growth and recognition,
higher starting salaries than locals, and better remuneration in China than
in North America also inclined students to return. In sum, leaving a host
country to return to China is easier when attractive, alternative career
opportunities exist, which supports the theory in relation to pull forces,
expected benefits, and the desirability of inducements. Chinese
government incentives appear effective in attracting Chinese home, which
supports ease of return as a reason for repatriation.
 Noneconomic pull forces in
China
Noneconomic motivations also explain repatriation, although they were
not as frequently cited as career and economic opportunities and
government incentives. The benefit of having strong relationships in
China derived from business, personal or family, and alumni networks
made return easier.
However, some Chinese were not inclined to return because of the
complication of these social relationships. Studies show that family and
friendship ties are valued benefits that pull students home. Actual and
potential returnees cited family ties in China and closeness to friends
and family in China as important to their actual and intended
repatriation. Some Chinese students intended to repatriate to care for
aging parents or because of their parents’ opinion.
Push forces in the host country
Returnees said they had repatriated, and students said they intended to
repatriate, because career and economic opportunities and job prospects were
less attractive in their host country than in China and they were dissatisfied
with them; economic growth had slowed in the United States; and students
feared they would not be able to find a job once they graduated or obtain a
work visa for the United States

Pull forces in the host country

The host-country benefits regarded by students in the United States and
Canada as superior to those in China and as a disincentive to their returning
included: better career opportunities, high salaries, and preparation to enter
the workforce; a higher quality of education, especially for children. Career
opportunities, family life, children’s education, and a happy settlement into a
Western lifestyle were strong barriers to the return to China of graduates
living in Australia.
Credits and Suggestions 3. From brain drain to brain gain: Beginning of a new Indian journey
- Publisher: R.A.Mashelkar

for further reading -

-
Credit: Nguyen Thi Bao Chau
Link: https://rb.gy/edh948

1. Skilled migration in Australia 4. Reverse brain drain in South Korea: State-led model
- Publisher: Australia government - Publisher: Sci-Hub
- Credit: Nguyen Linh Phuong - Credit: Do Thi Thuy Dung
- Link: https://rb.gy/bm09og - Link: https://rb.gy/98yqih

2. China’s reverse brain drain

5. Reverse brain drain in Taiwan
- Publisher: Flinders university
- Publisher: IMD
- Credit: Bui Phuong Linh
- Credit: Nguyen Thi Tuyet Hoa
- Link: https://rb.gy/ev3x0w
- Link: https://rb.gy/l8pl0q

Presented by GROUP 3
MEMBERS
Đoàn Phương Linh
Bùi Trúc Quỳnh
Nguyễn Đức Thọ

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thủy

Cao Quỳnh Trang

Presented by GROUP 3