Brain drain as loss and/or gain for the country of origin home country

Abstract

Already for many decades, brain drain is in the centre of debate of many economists as well as the impact of this phenomenon to the country of origin and inequalities among countries. Literature of 1960s and 1970s was dominated by attitudes on doubtless harm of migrations of high qualified persons for the country of origin but recently possible positive impacts were presented, like remittances, return of additional knowledge and skills obtained abroad, creation of business and trade ties. However, the problem is that majority of debates remained at theoretical level as a consequence of non-existence of evident data that would document actual effects of brain drain to various countries and in various periods of time. Emigration of highly qualified cadre is often described as a loss for the country of origin and gain for the country of destination. In reality this situation is much more complex. From the perspective of the country of origin, the loss can be decreased by reduction of unemployment rate but it yet cannot compensate the costs of education of those who left the country. However, if migrants connect enterprises in the country of origin with business capacities in the new country, both countries can benefit. On the other hand, if countries of destination do not use professional or other skills of emigrants as labor force, than migration can have negative influence on both societies. Impacts of migrations are broad and vary across economic and social sphere with significant overlapping and interaction among them.

Odliv mozgova je već dugi niz decenija u centru debate mnogih ekonomista, kao i uticaj ove pojave na zemlju porekla i nejednakosti između zemalja. Literaturom šezdesetih i sedamdesetih godina dominirali su stavovi o nesumnjivoj štetnosti migracija visokokvalifikovanih po zemlju porekla da bi nedavno bili prezentovani i mogući pozitivni uticaji u vidu doznaka, povratka dodatnog znanja i veština stečenih u inostranstvu, kreiranje poslovnih i trgovinskih veza. Međutim, problem je što je većina rasprava ostala na teoretskom nivou kao posledica nepostojanja evidentnih podataka koje bi dokumentovale stvarne efekte odliva mozgova na različite zemlje i u različitim vremenskim periodima. Emigracija visokokvalifikovanog kadra se često opisuje kao gubitak za zemlju porekla a dobitak za zemlju destinacije. U stvarnosti je ova situacija mnogo kompleksnija. Iz perspektive zemlje porekla, gubitak može biti umanjen snižavanjem stope nezaposlenosti ali to ipak ne može da kompenzuje troškove obrazovanja onih koji su napustili zemlju. Međutim, ukoliko migranti povežu preduzeća u zemlji porekla sa poslovnim mogućnostima u novoj zemlji, obe zemlje mogu imati koristi. Sa druge strane, ukoliko zemlje destinacije ne koriste profesionalne ili druge veštine emigranata kao radne snage, onda migracija može imati negativan uticaj na oba društva. Uticaji migracija su široki i variraju širom ekonomske i socijalne sfere sa značajnim preklapanjem i interakcijom između njih.