Shaping globalization: Braindrain in times of globalization: Difference between revisions

The old version of the text which includes all discussion (with peer review) is available at [[Shaping globalization: migration in times of globalization]]

In developing countries, many people feel that they can’t prosper. In those countries, although come to something, but this is unevenly distributed. There are extremely rich man on the other hand, many very poor people living in slums. In the coming years we will recognize where the globalization will lead us. Economic crisis will bring us to other ways that we previously believed not to go.  

The word migration comes from the Latin word "migrare" and means walking. Migration is a social process, which always has existed in human history. The reasons for people to migrate aren’t be the same anytime, but are subject to social change. The modern capitalist societies try to regulate migration to national interests. Today’s migration will be met with government immigration policies. When people decide to migrate then they usually migrate to areas with which they associate something: eg Most people begin migrating to regions nearby or neighboring countries because they trust them and are easily accessible. Many North-Africans go to France because they speak French in fact of the French colonial history; Central Americans migrate into the U.S. because this is the strongest economic partner, and thus are present everywhere in Central America. Turks coming to Germany because there is a long history of political and economic relations between both countries and now many personal and / or family contacts are available, on getting more organized immigration. There are many reasons for people to migrate to live somewhere else: the desire for a better education than is available at the source, adventure, hope for a better paying job, love, hunger, political persecution ...

== Braindrain ==

Developed countries use migration to gain advantage in the globalized economy. But the developing countries can also benefit from the migration. In the history people always been made their way to live in another place as where they are born and this not required globalization. The fact that they do it in such large numbers as in the second half of the nineteenth and the beginning of this century, may simply be related to the number of people on this planet has grown so rapidly. The percentage of migrants in the world's population increased only slightly from 2.1% (1975) to 2.9% (2000). (Philip L. Martin: Migration and development: Towards sustainable solutions, International Institute for Labour Studies DP/153/2004.) Earlier dungeons many people need to escape from their homeland because of war and famine to create a new livelihood. Today the developed countries use the migration more than one way to take an competitive advantage in the globalized economy. It is more and more important for developing countries to win over selectively immigrants who can make an important contribution to the development of its own economy.  

== Developing and transition countries on the losing side? ==

If even Germany seems to stand in this fight for the best brains tend to lose out, how should then developing countries consist in this fight?  

In fact, as already mentioned above, the OECD statistics show steadily increased the migration of highly educated specifically from the developing and transition countries. This emigration takes place more frequently in connection with the study. Thus, the number of students from developing countries increased dramatically in the U.S. In the year 1999 were awarded after a study by the National Academy of Science for more than 50% of all doctoral scholarships in engineering to foreigners. Most of them had previously studied at one of the elite universities in their home country. Many of these students stay in the USA after her graduation. This migration has always been viewed as a loss of the developing countries. Already in the sixties and seventies, the so-called "brain drain" was a topic of countless conferences. The call for administrative restrictions or financial compensation remained utterly inconsequential. The right of emigration is now regarded as a human right. The demographic development and the growing awareness of almost all the economic advantages of a selective immigration policy let's assume that the pull factors will be more and more important.  

The experience of many Asian countries with the emigration of highly skilled workers, rather suggests, to focus more on how to use the migrant communities for the development of countries. In fact, the "diaspora" (this designation has been introduced for the migrant communities), especially in a globalized world, gained an important significance for the countries of origin. This phenomenon was demonstrated for the first time very clearly on the migration of IT professionals from India, mainly in the United States. First of all, almost 500 000 IT professionals left the country, mostly to the United States, often borrowed at first only in the short term for certain programming tasks, the so-called "body-shopping", then often as employees of IT companies and later more often than independent contractors . Very soon, these entrepreneurs discovered that certain types of work in India were cheaper and established companies in India. Some of them even returned. They were, whether in the U.S. or in India, living beachheads in this rapidly growing industry. Recently a study demonstrated that the Indian diaspora in California recently has played the central role for the development of the IT industry in India. Uwe Hunger: Indian IT-Entrepreneurs in the US and in India. (An Illustration of the „Brain Gain Hypothesis“, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, August 2004, S. 99–109.) Similar trends were also seen in other Southeast Asian countries, especially in South Korea, Taiwan, but also in China.  

This example shows that it is not always the case that immigration will damage the development of a country. The loss may begin occurring human resources more than offset by activities of diaspora communities, whether through the return of skilled entrepreneurs or professionals, either through the commercial activities of contractors who would remain in the host country, whether through scientific or charitable activities.  

== References ==