Africa's got brains: Consequences of brain drain

The country/region from where mass outflow occurs is regarded as the sufferer of Brain drain whereas the host country receiving the influx of skilled professionals benefits from Brain gain. Brain drain has both positive and negative effects on a provider nation.

Negative effects

The major consequence is that the magnitude of the labour force is diminished. The provider nation is at risk of depleting its supply of intellectual talent especially since it is the highly skilled individuals who are lured to developed nations for better opportunities and higher after-tax incomes. These are professionals who have been trained by the scarcely available resources at social cost in their home countries.

In Kenya, the health sector as earlier mentioned has suffered the most in the past three decades. The mass migration of doctors and nurses to US has adversely affected the local health system. Although we have received financial aid to deal with issues such as maternal and child mortality and diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria, there is inadequate manpower in the form of medical and health professionals. In view of this, increasing development aid will not yield much if there are no local personnel to implement health and development programs.

Many International and local NGOs are forced to bring in expatriates from the very developed countries that have lured our skilled workers. Foreign workers are also imported by governments of developing nations to fill the huge gap left. A new report by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) estimates that Africa uses about $4 billion dollars a year to replace the lost workers with expatriates from the West.

Scarcity of skilled professionals in development countries also negatively impacts the local industrial development. Multi National Companies (though they also have many negative effects) avoid brain-drained countries due to lack of proficient workers. Development of basic infrastructure in brain-drained countries is also affected. City planners, architectures and engineers are among the top migrants to developed nations. Additionally, with countless entrepreneurs taking their ideas and businesses to developed nations, wealth creation for their own country is lost.

Positive effects

Although brain-drain has a negative connotation, it does have its merits. Skeldon (2008) notes that the leaving of highly skilled migrants causes increased demand for higher level education amongst the population.

Additionally, most people who settle abroad send money back home to their relatives. The sending back of remittances increases economic development in the country and raises the standard of living for the recipients. 

Finally, if the skilled workers are in circular migration (the temporary and usually repetitive movement of a migrant worker between home and host countries) they may bring with them new skills and knowledge when their return home.

References

Skeldon, Ronald (2008). "Of skilled migration, Brain Drains and Policy". International Migration 23 (4): 1–26.