1287 



with the result that the Nation's colleges and universities will no 

 doubt continue to play a primary role in the education of foreign stu- 

 dents. And if past experience can be any reliable guide, international 

 student exchange will continue to be a serious source of bram drainJ*^ 



BRAIN DRAIN PHENOMENON I A HIDDEN FOREIGN POLICY PROBLEM 



Thus the brain drain phenomenon has touched many parts of 

 American Government and society. Involvement has depended upon 

 the particular relationship of the controllers and the users with the 

 incoming professionals. Awareness of foreign policy problems aris- 

 ing from brain drain has not gone much, beyond this triangular 

 relationship. 



In this sense, brain drain is a hidden problem for American foreign 

 policy. And though expressed concern may have diminished in the 

 past decade, the problem persists, along with the conditions that pro- 

 duced it, while the consequences appear to be worsening because the 

 problem is no longer between the United States and the developed 

 industrial nations of the West. Bather it is between the United States 

 and the emer^ng LDCs. An unequal relationship has evolved. The 

 gap between rich and poor has been widening, not closing. The poor 

 continue to subsidize the rich with expensively produced professional 

 manpower. 

 Brain Drain in the Matrix of American Foreign Policy 



Brain drain and development converge in the matrix of American 

 foreign policy to form a complex of opposites. Brain drain, one of 

 many essential elements in the international development process, is a 

 low visibility problem that comes and goes with the rise and fall of 

 complaints by donor nations and concern by the receiving nations. 

 Yet it is a durable problem that relates directly to development, and 

 accordingly poses the essential question of the American stance to- 

 wards the developing countries. For brain drain and development 

 are principles in contradiction: one cannot have it both ways — an 

 LDC cannot develop without an educated elite. 



The contradiction is compounded by" the inability of the United 

 States, despite its current mood of withdrawal, to escape involve- 

 ment with the LDCs. The LDCs have the greatest concentration of 

 the world's population and natural resources; they are a resource- 

 base and market for the advanced industrial states; they are the 

 international trouble spots, real and potential, in a delicately balanced 

 world political system. 



''*^ International student exchange Is about to get a substantial thrust forward in a 

 cooperative effort to be undertaken by Georgetown University in conjunction with the 

 West German Government. Under the proposed plan Georgetown is prepared to bring 

 about 500 German students to the United States next summer and spread them among 25 

 colleges and universities from coast to coast for a year's trial run. If the idea proves 

 workable, it Is possible that as many as 30,000 young Germans may be studying in America 

 annually. The idea is based on the law of supply and demand. American enrollments have 

 been declining ; the current openings are estimated to number some 300,000. Competition 

 for available openings in West German universities is so intense that almost 50,000 quali- 

 fied applicants are turned away yearly. The Germans reason that the cost of education 

 abroad would be considerably less than building equivalent educational facilities In 

 Germany. For the American^, the plan enables its colleges and universities to use their 

 facilities to maximum efficiency. Unmentioned in the press coverage is the vulnerability of 

 the West Germans to brain drain. (John M. Goshko, "German University Plan May In- 

 volve Georgetown," The Washington Post, Sept. 16, 1973, p. Al.) 



