1055 



3. It is a barrier to socio-economic development in selected areas ; 



4. It is diverting attention — when used as a self-serving slogan — from condi- 

 tions that require urgent action.^ 



Similar recognition of the problem is apparent in the 1968 report of 

 the House Government Operations Committee on the "Scientific Brain 

 Drain from the Developing Countries." Among its findings was this : 

 "While the immigration may not harm development in the short run, 

 it will have serious adverse consequences in the long run." ^^ 



Finally, the most current assessment by the United Nations (Janu- 

 ary 18, 1974) contained an outright statement that brain drain is a 

 problem. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim acknowledged in his re- 

 port the difficulties in measuring the precise magnitude of the outflow. 

 And immigration statistics of the United States, the United Kingdom, 

 and Canada, he said, provide only minimum figures for evaluating 

 the brain drain. But even "these minimum figures indicate that the net 

 outflow of trained personnel from developing to developed countries 

 is significant enough to justify the international concern and to war- 

 rant the formulation and implementation of policies to reduce, if 

 not to stop, this net outflow." 



30 



POSITIVE VALUE OF SCIEXCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND EDUCATION IN MODERN 



CrV'ILIZATION 



A second assumption is acceptance of the belief that modern indus- 

 trial civilization based on science and technolog}', as it has developed 

 in the United States and other industrial areas of the world, is gen- 

 erally a positive good, thus a desirable value, and accordingly a desira- 

 ble goal for a nation to achieve. 



Inherent in this view is the further assumption as to the positive 

 value of education as an essential instrument for development and 

 achieving modernity. Commentators on the brain drain like Dr. 

 Frankel recognize the dilemma of the United States, being at once a 

 "graduate school for the LDCs" and a magnet attracting the educated 

 elite as nonreturnees, but assuming the overriding value of education, 

 they maintain, like Dr. Kidd, that "it would be out of perspective to 

 view the training of students in this country as anything but a large, 

 positive gain to the world." ^^ 



Accordingly, it is further assumed that the educated class in the 

 LDCs represents a national elite and as such represents an investment 



=8 Seltzer, op. clt., p. 56. ^ . 



™U.S Congress House, Committee on Government Operations, Scientific Brnin Drnin 

 from tlie Developing Countries. Twenty-third report, 90th Cong., 2cl sess., 19fi8, n. 5. 

 (Hereafter cited as. Report, House Government Operations Committee, Scientific Brain 

 Drain from the LDCs, 1968.) 



30 United Nations, Committee on Science and Technology for Development, Ovfflow of 

 Trained Personnel from Developing to Developed Countries, Report of the Secretary 

 General. New York, United Nations, 1974, p. 6.15. (United Nations. E/C. 8/21. Jan. 18, 

 1974. ) 



In introducing the Secretary General's report to the Committee on Science and Tech- 

 nologv for Developmenf. Rajiiikant C. Desai. acting Director of the Office for Science 

 and Technology, noted that the United Nations had been dealing with the brain drain 

 problem for a number of years. The subject, he said, had caused understandable anxiety 

 among the developing countries which feared the loss of their professional manpower 

 to the advanced countries. Accordingly, the subject had aroused concern within the United 

 Nations legislative bodies. 



Debate on this matter within the Committee elicited varying degrees of attitudes, but 

 the Canadian delegate expressed a common theme when he said that brain drain was 

 "a real problem for developing countries." (United Nations, Office of Public Information, 

 Press Section Committee on Science and Technology, . . . Begins Debate on "Brnin 

 Drain," New York, United Nations, 1974, 6 p. United Nations Document, Press Release 

 TEC/233, Mar. 25, 1974.) „ ^. 



31 Hearings, House Government Operations Committee, Brain Drain, 1968, p. 44. 



