CHAPTER 13— BRAIN DRAIN: A STUDY OF THE PERSIST- 

 ENT ISSUE OF INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC MOBILITY 



I. Introduction 



The purpose of this study is to show tlie interaction of American 

 diplomacy with science and technology respecting the problem of the 

 l)i'aii\ di-.-iin. 'I'iie approach is to examine the various aspects of the 

 issue, show its complexities, and assevSS its importance as a continuing, 

 but largely unperceived, problem in American diplomacy. 



Attention is focused mainly on the "less developed countries'' 

 (LDCs). the greatest losers of educated talent to the advanced conn- 

 tries. ])articularly to the I'nited States. Loss of this talent, widely re- 

 garded as (>ssential for the long-term needs of national development, 

 constitutes a "brain drain.'-' 



Extensive materials on brain drain have been examined in the prep- 

 aration of this study, notably those published by the U.S. Congress, 

 the various agencies of the U^^.S. Government, the L'nited Nations, and 

 numerous independent scholars and research groups. 



Though brain drain is an historical phenomenon dating back to the 

 ancient Greeks, in its present form it has become a problem unique to 

 the modern eia of science and technology. It has been in the immediate 

 ])ast, and reinains (though loss visibly), a troubling issue in this 

 Nation's diplomacy. 



An Erol r'dic] Intenwi'ion-ol Issue 



On ]May 12. lOfi-l. President Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere of Tangan- 

 yika told the Parliament on the occasion of introducing his develop- 

 ment plan to the nation : 



Some of our citizens will have large amounts of money spent on their education, 

 while others have none. Those who receive the privilege tlierefore have a duty to 

 repay the sacrifices which others have made. They are like the man who has 

 been' given all the food available in a starving village in order that he may have 

 strength to bring supi>lies back from a distant place. If he takes this food and 

 does not bring help to his brothers, he is a traitor. Similarly, if any of the young 

 men and women who are given education by the i>eople of this Republic adopt 

 attitudes of superiority, or fail to use their knowledge to help the development 

 of this country, then they are betraying our Union.^ 



Tn a s]>oecli at the Fourth Rehovoth Conference in August 1967, 

 Israeli ^Minister of Health Yissrael Barzilai publicly agreed with the 

 statement of Britain's Health Minister Sir Kenneth Robinson that ho 

 was not pi'epared to "invest thousands of pounds sterling in a medical 

 student only to increase the membership of the American Medical 

 Association." ^ 



1 t^iuit''il III, Trcilcrltk Il.arlilsoii. "IVfiblcms of Dcvcloplnir lUtrlnT IMruatlnn in tho 

 .N'cwly I iiM'lopl iiL' ('(.niilrli's," U.S. Cnnurc-s, House, Coininlt tee on iMUirntlon jind Liilmr, 

 Inlciiiitlioiiiil I'diii niton: J'ngl, PrvHint, I'idIiIiiiix unci I'roMiirits. I'rcimrcd by (tip 'I'li^k 

 I'ofcc on IntiTn.itldniil Kdupiitlon, 89tli ^(ln^^, 2(1 soss., lOfiO, pi>. 471 472. (llcreal tiT 

 cllfd iiH, Silrctnl Kiadinya on Intcfnationat Education, House Coininlttce on Education 

 nnd r,al)or, l!l(;(V) 



- Ilaridd M:irKiillc.s, M.D. and Lucille .Stuplicnson Bloch. Fnrcii/n MriUral Ornduntm in 

 the United States (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University rruss, I'JO'J). pp. vll-vlll. 



Note : This chapter was prepared In 1974 by Joseph G. Whelau. 



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