1291 



BRAIN DRAIN AS A FORCE UNDERMINING DEVTiLOPMENT POLICY: 



JUDGMENTS OF THE PAST 



Nearly three decades of policy and practice afl5rm a positive Amer- 

 ican stance towards the LDCs. The Nation's commitment to develop- 

 ment has become a significant component of U.S. foreign policy in 

 the post-World War II era. But brain drain and development policy 

 are interacting opposites : one tends to cancel out the other, or as The 

 Christian Science Monitor explained the contradiction: "With one 

 hand the United States is giving [foreign] countries millions to de- 

 velop themselves. And with the other it is casually taking away the 

 seed com of future leaders in natural science, health, and technical 

 knowledge. These are even more precious to the country than food or 

 machinery." "^ 



As will be seen below, the criticism that brain drain undermines for- 

 eign aid is a common thread running through much of the literature 

 on this subject. Judgments of the past may vary on certain aspects 

 of brain drain, but they seem to concur on this central, all-abiding 

 theme. Costs and losses to the LDCs have been documented in this 

 study. These data are further corroborated by the evaluations of those 

 who have studied the brain drain problem, particularly its implica- 

 tions for foreign policy. 



Views of the House Government Operations Com/mittee, 1968. — In 

 its detailed study of the problem in 1968 the House Government Op- 

 erations Committee pointed out the anomaly of the brain drain's 

 undercutting foreign aid to the LDCs. Taking the estimated cost per 

 person of at least $20,000 in education and training, as suggested by 

 Dr. Kidd, the Committee staff calculated that 4,390 scientists, engi- 

 neers, and physicians emigrating from the LDCs in the fiscal year 

 1966 represented a contribution of some $88 million to the United 

 States. Of this amount, the 13 countries which had been the major 

 targets of U.S. aid programs contributed more than $50 million to 

 the United States in the form of 2,563 scientific professionals. Accord- 

 ing to the Committee's staff study, the estimated "reverse foreign aid" 

 more than offset the $40,285,000 spent in American aid funds to give 

 technical training to about 16,000 persons from the LDCs, of whom 

 perhaps 25 to 30 percent were scientists, engineers, and similar 

 specialists.'^^* 



The Committee reemphasized this anomaly in its final report to the 

 Congress which stated : 



On the one hand, Federal programs in research and development, initiated 

 and expanded in pursuit of important national objectives, have greatly in- 

 creased demand for domestic scientific manpower in the United States. They may 

 also be providing incentives for immigration of scarce scientific talent from the 

 poorer countries of the world. 



On the other hand, the long-sustained U.S. foreign aid program has devoted 

 substantial sums and given high priority to the education and training of pro- 

 fessional manpower in the developing countries as an essential ingredient of 

 development. To the extent that these countries suffer an emigration drain of 



'53 The Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 31, 1969, quoted in Walter Adams, "Talent 

 That Won't Stay Put," p. 60. 



'" Staff study. House Government Operations Committee, Brain Drain into the United 

 States of Scientists, Engineers and Physicians, 1967, p. 7. 



