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curred in the LDCs is evident in studies on brain drain from Latin 

 America and the Middle East. A report by the Pan American Health 

 Organization discussed the function of the vital cadres of talent for de- 

 velopment and the difficulties generated for Latin American countries 

 by the loss of this elite ; and then made the following generalization : 

 "informed people in virtually every Latin American country can 

 name persons of outstanding talent who have migrated to the United 

 States. The numbers vary from country to country and they are small, 

 but they constitute a serious blow to development." *" 



The UNITAR study on brain drain from Lebanon asserts cate- 

 gorically that losses iii the Middle East have adversely affected the 

 development of its universities. According to the study, 70 percent of 

 the scienti<=ts from the area who have studied in Europe and North 

 America emigrate. It concludes : "This outflow of highly trained per- 

 sonnel has retarded the development of the universities in this area 

 over the last 10 years." "^ This conclusion infers that the cadre of vital 

 manpower has "been impaired and development as a whole thereby 



impeded.**^ 



Social Costs of Medical Brain Drain.— Th^ social costs of emigrat- 

 ing physicians from the LDCs constitute a long-term negative factor 

 in development. Unprovable in an absolute sense, this loss can be 

 measured partly by the ratio of M.D.s-to-population and by consider- 

 ing social needs rather than demand. 



Doctor-to-population ratios illuminate the disparity of medical care 

 in the LDCs and the advanced countries, and point to the conclusion 

 that the LDCs suffer adversely from medical brain drain. In the 

 United States, the heaviest user of FMGs from the LDCs, the ratio 

 nationally is about 1.7 doctors for every 1,000 inhabitants. In New 

 York State, which has the highest concentration of FMGs, the ratio 



*" PAHO, Migration of Health Personnel, Scientist-i , and Engineers from Latin America, 

 19C6 p. 8. The report stated : "The problem cannot be assessed statistically, and there 

 Is no point In attemptinic to do so. The critical fact Is that the dimension of quality 

 must be borne explicitly in mind when statistics are examined." A case In point is the 

 migration of 700 Argentine engineers to the United States over the period 1951-1961. 

 This number, the report stated, equaled 8 percent of the total number of new engineers 

 graduating over that 10-year period, (p. 4.) 



Luis Giorgi estimates that Latin America loses 8 percent of the annual number or 

 graduates in the scientific and engineering professions as a result of brain drain. He 

 placed the cost at about $14 million per year, that is. direct cost of training those 

 emigrants, but he added : "If account is taken of all the many consequences — almost 

 impossible to evaluate in figures — the loss is very much greater." Presumably, he was 

 suggesting losses to development. (See, UNESCO, Final Report of the Conference on the 

 Application of Science and Technology to the Development of Latin America, 1965, 



' Losses of the critical elite seemed to be inferred In data presented to the House 

 Government Operations Committee during its study on brain drain. The Committee's study 

 cited the case of the Dominican Republic which sent the United States 78 physicians In 

 1962 yet this figure constituted a third of the country's additions to manpower stock 

 In thnt year. Moreover, 44 emigrating Dominican engineers were more than two-thirds of 

 the country's new graduates. Chile's 18 engineers immigrating to the United States were 

 equivalent "of a fifth of its additions through new graduates. With regard to Israel the 

 study noted that Israel's 30 physicians were "an astounding 41.7 percent of its additions 

 to the physician population of the country." (Staff study. House Government Operations 

 Committee. Brain Drain into the United States of 'Scientists, Engineers and Physicians, 



^^44s'uNlTAR, Brain Drain from Five LDCs, 1971, p. 84. In the period 1962-1967. 2,229 

 Lebanese professionals were admitted to the United States. 



<*« The report on the Ditchlev Park Conference stated that several speakers had difficulty 

 putting quantitative value to ail economic factors in brain drain and the other non-economic 

 factors which are also important. The report said : "The real loss to the community is the 

 loss of leadership which highlv qualified manpower represents. One example was given of 

 a school for technicians in Pakistan which was delayed for 4 years due to the migration of 

 one man. The influence of Homl Bhabha on the development of Indian science was cited as 

 an example of the effect of a man of international stature who did not migrate." (Report, 

 Ditchley Park Conference on Brain Z>rai»J, 1968, p. 13.) 



