1156 



dents emigrate, according to the UNITAR study, "probably because 

 they are offered excellent professional opportunities in their own coun- 

 try." "The chief reason for emigration in the Arab world," the study 

 noted, "is the inability to find an adequate job" ^^® The same is true 

 of other areas of the world. In 1966 Dr. Dael L. Wolfle, then Executive 

 Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 referred to this more or less universal truth at a State Department 

 workshop on international migration. In explaining both internal 

 and external brain drain, he said : "We talk of this as a brain drain 

 when it comes across national boundaries, but the reasons for move- 

 ment . . . are likely to be much the same. They are reasons of oppor- 

 tunity. They are reasons of positions offered." ^" 



But the pull of immigration to the United States is not necessarily 

 left to chance. In competing in the world labor market for highly 

 skilled manpower, American business firms, especially those with over- 

 seas connections, actively recruit. Universities have found foreign stu- 

 dents a rich field for recruitment for permanent staff, for ongoing 

 positions, and for research. Hospitals and other health services institu- 

 tions have similarly found a rich field among foreign medical gradu- 

 ates. Published announcements on career opportunities in the press 

 and professional journals and even recruiting visits to foreign coun- 

 tries are not uncommon practices."* 



REVOLUTION IN WORLD COMMUNICATIONS 



The revolution in modern communications is a final "pull" factor 

 in the economics of professional migration. This revolution created an 

 individual mobility unprecedented in the history of mankind. Com- 

 munications specialists like Marshall McLuhan now speak of the world 

 as a "global village" and a "contracting planet." ^^^ Expansion of the 

 world's educational systems, responding more to popular demands 

 than to immediate needs, combined with this revolution in communi- 

 cations to foster a universalization of knowledge. These forces encour- 

 aged the development of transnational communities of professional 



3i« UNITAR, Brain Drain From Five LDCs, 1971, p. 91. Lafi Ibrahim Jaafarl discovered 

 from a survey of Palestinian and Jordanian students and professionals residing in the 

 United States that the initial motivation for education In the United States changed from 

 "becoming of more benefit to my country" to "improving job opportunities." In the United 

 states where there is a "better professional environment" most of the respondents felt 

 that the career opportunities were greater. Hence, the rationale for immigration. Forty-five 

 percent of the respondents were planning to remain in the United States either temporarily 

 or permanently. (Jaafarl, op. cit., pp. 123 and 125.) 



^^ Department of State, Proceedings oS Workshop on the International Migration of 

 Talent and Skills, October 1966, p. 138. 



^* Aspects of the recruiting activities of American business and universities is discussed 

 by Rev. William J. Gibbons, S.J. director, Scientific Manpower Survey, Fordham University, 

 In Hearings, House Government Operations Committee, Brain Drain, 1968, pp. 4, 6-7. See 

 also the example inserted in the testimony of Dr. Donald F. Hornlg in, Hearings, Senate 

 Judiciary Committee, International Migration of Talent and Skills, 1968, p. 103. An an- 

 nouncement in the New Scientist, an English publication, on Nov. 17, 1966 noted the arrival 

 of a recruiting team from America to discuss new job opportunities in the United States for 

 qualified British engineers and scientists. It went on to say : "Employers will pay the full 

 fare to the States for you, your family and belongings — probably offer you an advanced 

 study course — give you staff support and facilities you never had before, and do their best 

 to make you feel at home. The powerful American economy offers terrific prospects for tech- 

 nical people at all levels of experience. Major long-term projects opening up are creating 

 countless new opportunities. Back orders alone run into billions of dollars. The profes- 

 sional's role in research, development and manufacture is highly valued in the USA. Employ- 

 ers are more willing than ever to hire a man for his potential and give him lots of respon- 

 sibility fast." 



^"Robert Leestma, "OE's Institute of International Studies," American Education (May 

 1969), (HEW reprint pp. 5-8). 



