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The big, bad ‘D’
The human brain is one of the most complicated systems around. It never gets “depleted” and nor does it get “drained.” However, given the current state of affairs “brain drain” are commonly used terms. It’s a process that is said to slowly filter away intelligent minds and the developing countries are victims of this problem.
According to Wikipedia “brain drain” is “an emigration of trained and talented individuals for other nations or jurisdictions due to conflict or lack of opportunity or health hazards where they are living.” The term was first used in the 1950s to describe the outflow of scientists and technologists to United States and Canada. Interestingly enough, it was also used by the Royal Society of London. Realizing the consequences of this outflux, countries such as UK, Canada, Australia, Japan and other developed countries formulated policies to convert “brain drain” into “brain exchange.” Now these developed countries are net importers of talent, causing most developing countries to bear the brunt.
Every year scores of highly skilled professionals from the developing world make their way to the US and other OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. The reasons are various, from lack of opportunities to hindrance in professional growth to poor health and educational facilities, etc. Above all, professionals with tertiary education plus foreign postgraduate degrees are often misfits in the local job market. As a result, when they are offered lucrative job opportunities abroad, they are quick to take up the offer and decide to settle in a foreign land for the rest of their lives. The result? Investment in education does not lead to economic growth.
Practically, brain drain is a cyclic process. Technological incompetence and absence of proper research facilities force researchers and technologists to move to greener pastures. Consequently, higher learning institutions lack competent faculties, thereby exacerbating the situation. According to Mr Abul Kalam, vice-chancellor of NED University: “because of brain drain, it (NED) has not started doctorate programme.” In Pakistan the process began in the eighties and sped up uncontrollably in the nineties. According to the official webpage of GoP’s National Talent Pool, the “ever persisting brain drain continues to deprive the country of expertise and skills of its most talented men and women who have chosen to settle abroad.”
Talented people are born all over the world — they are not just found in developed countries. However, their movement bridges the knowledge gap between two parts of the world. Since developed societies are technologically advanced, it is the human brain that can help in the exchange of knowledge. This can be achieved by attracting skilled emigrants and by providing them opportunities to make use of their expertise. These returnees also bring valuable management experience, entrepreneurial skills, access to global networks, venture capital and bright ideas. Keeping this in view, countries like Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Korea successfully invested their “brain” asset and eventually reaped the benefit of their timely investment.
For poor countries the real problem is attracting expatriate scientists and researchers. A survey shows that 79 per cent of 1990-91 recipients of PhD in science and engineering from India and 88 per cent of those from China were still working in the US in 1995. In contrast, for Korea and Japan, the figure was 11 per cent and 15 per cent respectively. In the meantime, the information revolution along with globalization forced OECD countries to launch skill-based immigration programmes for IT workers. In 2000, Germany initiated a sort of green-card scheme to recruit 20,000 foreign IT specialists. This time, China and India took full advantage of the emerging scenario. Hsinchu, the biggest science park in Taipei, China and India’s skyrocketing software industry are the best examples in this regard.
The post-9/11 era provided Pakistan with an opportunity to capitalize on its unplanned and poorly managed human investment. We have a huge but scattered brain bank across the globe. Earlier, there were enough reasons for a foreign qualified professional to settle abroad. However, the prevailing sense of insecurity and many other factors seriously hampered this trend. Luring our talented émigrés back home successfully is a real challenge for us now. Thorough research, timely planning and right mix of policies may help us in transforming the brain drain into a “brain bank.”
Quality research is required not only to collect reliable data about the Pakistani diaspora in developed countries, their decision-making patterns and issues linked with their return, but also to analyze the policies of India, Korea, Japan, Ireland, etc. The National Talent Pool; a division of the Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis in collaboration with the UNDP is running a programme called the Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals (Token). On the other hand, HEC, under the leadership of Dr Attaur Rehman is also doing its best to hire foreign qualified faculty. According to Dr Attaur Rehman, 256 university-level teachers have already joined different post-graduate institutions in the last two years. He also has plans to send 15,000-20,000 students abroad for higher studies. These efforts need to be fully integrated and a proper follow-up is required to save this enormous investment.
The global identity crisis, stricter immigration policies of western countries and a sense of insecurity are forcing expatriate Pakistanis to think twice about their future. Without proper and farsighted planning, it is very difficult to exploit this resource fully. The current low-profile influx has already produced some complications. As far as the industry is concerned, an absence of infrastructure, lack of entrepreneur-friendly environment, the saithiya mentality of industrialists and short-term profit-based planning are some of the factors hampering the return of expatriates. On the academic front, however, they are offered compatible packages, but this also created a cold war between the local and foreign faculty. On a larger extent, these newcomers are usually not familiar with local campus politics, red-tapism, obsolete administrative procedures and above all the scarcity of resources.
These multi-dimensional implications strongly suggest that the HEC alone cannot complete the task. The government has to take a step forward to fully utilize the potential of our national asset. The need to have a high-level forum which can convert current problems into future prospects is of utmost importance and so, must be addressed accordingly.
The writer <muzamilnmuzamil@yahoo.com> is an electrical engineer
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