When a person moves to a different location especially a new market in search of lucrative opportunities and better standards of living, the phenomenon is often regarded as brain drain. The movement can be evaluated in terms of geography, economy or politics of the countries and places involved.
Such movement, either immigration or emigration may alter and shift the overall balance and demography of the national workforce of a country. The factors for translocation are major of two kinds; push (where the person is forced to leave the home country) and pull (where a person is pulled toward/attracted to a foreign country or market).
Since colonial times, this phenomenon has been used to explain the loss of human capital and expertise by an underdeveloped country which is under a spell of crisis and resource crunch. For example-the Indian economy under the British Empire suffered huge losses to the brain drain of English educated Indian youth who were swayed by the glamour of life in Britain.
Today, it may be seen in Indian youth seeking educational opportunities in universities in the US and Europe overlooking the opportunities available domestically. Often this is due to a negative perception of the familiar institutions and appeal of the globally popular franchises.
On a smaller scale, brain drain may also occur if a person feels that the cope for growth in a particular industry may impede his progress and transfer to a completely different or even competing for the industry to further his success.
Another example may be of the war-torn or crisis-ravaged country like Syrian or Palestinian refugee crisis etc. where people have to emigrate just to ensure their safety and physical security.
Comprehensively, the effects of such drain of talent and expertise can have long-lasting effects on the economy of the suffering country including huge financial and revenue losses like taxes, loss of leadership and entrepreneurial talent, deficiency of technological know-how, implications on the education and health infrastructure and overall global confidence in the country’s market.
The problem of brain drain warrants a careful and strategic plan to rebalance the scale and help improve the existing educational and vocational infrastructure of the country. A long term development programme backed by robust policy decisions is paramount to redress the loss of human capital.
