Work Abroad vs Brain Drain

The other day a friend was asking me what I thought about Bruneians working abroad. From our conversation it appears that many Bruneians oppose the very idea of people leaving their families back home (note the reason!) and of course there is also an issue of brain drain.

Well, it is complicated. And I have 2 sets of answers:

If you are asking me as a worker, my answer to that would be Why Not? If it (working abroad) can increase my welfare and that of my family's then I would not hesitate to work abroad.

[And my view is that if you answer NO to working abroad because you don't want to leave your family, despite no job back home while an opportunity abroad is available, then it is another example of mind-set problem of Bruneians]

If you are asking me as a policymaker, my answer would be 'it depends on WHO are working abroad'. There is obviously an issue of brain drain, defined as the emigration of trained and talented individuals to other nations. It is an economic issue because the (large) investment a nation puts in higher education is lost and it drains resources (human capital) from the home country. Countries such as China, India and even the UK are facing the economic consequences of brain drain of the educated and skilled workers.

Herein also lies the dilemma of being a small country where opportunities are also small.
I would say Brunei being a small country should keep its 'best and brightest' at home and at the same time facilitate others who want to work abroad with a ready policy that will ensure the return of these workers. You see, brain drain aside, returning emigrant workers can have positive effect on the development of a country. Research (see Kapur and McHale, 2005) shows that returnees generally have higher entrepreneurship skill, higher saving, better ideas and so on than those who are at home of the same skill. And I would like to stress again that Brunei SHOULD have a policy or an effective 'entice return' policy if it must encourage Bruneians to go abroad, in order to reap the benefits of their 'foreign skills'.

And then there is also a role of the 'Diasporas' which according to an article from Science and Development Network:

With rapid improvements in communications technologies, highly skilled
migrants can help their countries even when remaining abroad, by maintaining
links with industry and research at home. Known as scientific diasporas,
this is
a relatively new trend – and hints at a reversal, or transformation,
that many
believe smacks more of 'gain' than 'drain'.

To conclude, there is actually no easy answer to this. While working abroad may perhaps alleviate the problem of unemployment, it comes with a great cost to the nation itself because fundamentally, a country needs (local) talents to ensure innovations, build institutions and implement programmes. Of course someone would argue that talents can be imported but then would it be the same? No matter what, good policies must be at hands in order to ensure the gains would be greater than the cost.

I recommend the book "Give us Your Best and Brightest: The Global Hunt for Talent and Its Impact on the Developing World" by Devesh Kapur and John McHale, for those who are interested in the issue of brain drain and those involve in the policymaking:



Salaam.