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termed the loss of highly trained scientists from the LDCs a "national 

 catastrophe." "This movement," he said, "constitutes in effect, an irre- 

 placeable loss of a most valuable resource available to developing na- 

 tions — scientific and technological brain power." ^^^ 



What is most significant about brain drain as a negative force in de- 

 velopment is that the number of scientists, engineers, physicians, and 

 other professionals who make up this key talent resource is not very 

 great. Effects must, therefore, be measured against qualitative rather 

 than quantitative criteria. The CIMT study estimated that in the 1960's 

 worldwide migration from the LDCs to the advanced countries was 

 around 300,000 a year. About 15 percent of this total, or 50,000, were 

 estimated to have had professional or technical training. By applying 

 a strict criterion of value to development the number could be reduced 

 to 25,000. Assuming that 1 in 10 had exceptional ability, then the core 

 loss was between 3,000 to 5,000 a year, but these were persons with the 

 highest ability and training. The loss of this vital cadre of talent, the 

 study concluded, "can be particularly harmful" to development be- 

 cause it is this exceptional group that can contribute the most.**^ 



Statistics on the migration of scientists, engineers, and physicians 

 from the LDCs to the United States suggest that losses among the 

 especially talented of some countries are probably not an exceptional 

 occurrence and perhaps increase proportionately with the increase in 

 immigration.^^^ Such losses are, however, difficult to document, and 

 most students of brain drain seem to approach this problem with cau- 

 tion, at best generalizing on the degree of loss or just recording statis- 

 tics and percentages on immigrant professionals that in themselves 

 imply or infer the dimension of loss."^ That losses to this elite are in- 



<«> Quoted In, United Nations Educational. Scientific and Cultural Organization, The 

 ProNem of Emigration of Scientists and Technologists, Preliminary report prepared at 

 the request of the Advisory Committee of the Economic and Social Council on the Appli- 

 cation of Science and Technology to Development, Paris, Feb. 29, 1968. p. 12. (Hereafter 

 cited as, UNESCO, Problem of Emigration of Scientists and Technologists, February 



The late Lloyd V. Berkner, Director of the Graduate Research Center of the South- 

 west gave the following appraisal of the relationship between Intellectual power and 

 development: "Only those regions will be economically healthy that have the Intellectual 

 power to exploit the new science and the consequent industry. Most certainly, those regions 

 that fail intellectually will fail economically and become chronically poor and colonial 

 to the Intellectuallv advanced regions. This Is the social certainty that the technological 

 revolution of our century has made clear." (Quoted in, UNESCO. Final Report of the 

 Conference on the Application of Science and Technology to the Development of Latin 

 America, 1965, p. 181.) ^ , , x • . , 



*ii CIMT study p. 671. The UNESCO report on development in Latin America made 

 the following observations on the effect of scientific and technological brain-drain from 

 Latin America : "The most serious consequence of this constant drain Is evident in the 

 (lifficultv — and, in some cases, the impossibility— of ensuring the training, in each branch 

 of science and technologj', of the critical mass of specialists and research workers capable 

 of producing a real impact on the community. Society does not take account of science 

 as it does not 'see results', and science, in turn, is bereft of the resources and support 

 of society. A posslblv paradoxical result of this situation is to be seen in the fact that 

 Latin American countries have to seek experts from the very countries to which their 

 own scientists and experts emigrate, and often in the same fields." (UNESCO, Final 

 Report of the Conference on the Application of Science and Technology to the Develop- 

 ment of Latin America, 1965, pp. 29-30. • . . ^ ^ *. 



<'2 Mr. Baldwin discusses the loss of what he terms "key men," which he places at 

 about 5-10 percent of all professional migrants. He notes the difficulty in assessing 

 such losses, particularly in establishing criteria. "No one has made such studies on more 

 than a casual basis and It seems very Improbable that anyone will," he wrote. Accordingly, 

 he assumes that migration of the critical elite would be "roughly proportional to the 

 total number of professional migrants." Losses of key men have risen with the rise In 

 total migration, he said, but adds that these losses are considerably offset by the rapidly 

 growing supply of key men being generated by expanding education at home and abroad. 

 (Baldwin, op. cit.. pp. 362-63.) , „ „„^ „, . 



*« Professor Skolnikoff cited the case of only 5 percent of the 2,000 Taiwanese a year 

 returning from graduate study abroad. The absolute numbers involved are relatively small 

 compared to emigration from scientifically advanced countries, but he noted that the 

 loss of even a few highly trained personnel can have more serious effects on a less-aevelopea 

 nation's scientific and industrial activities." Professor Skolnikoff acknowledged that the 

 significance of this loss to a small struggling nation is hard to evaluate, but noted that 

 elements of loss had to remain "open questions." (Skolnikoff, op. cit., p. 95.) 



