1060 



vereity among the LDCs was made by Dr. Kidd. After pointing out 

 the risks of generalizing about the migration of skilled people from 

 the LDCs, Dr. Kidd gave this description of the many interacting 

 variables producing brain drain in the developing countries : 



The differences between the extent of and causes of migration from less- 

 developed countries are so extreme that they cannot be considered as a homo.c^'e- 

 nous group. Some very poor countries have no means of training people, and 

 must depend on expatriates. They have no brain drain problem. Some are newly 

 independent and are in the process of substituting their citizens for expatriates. 

 They have no brain drain problem because well-paid government jobs with high 

 prestige are available for all, trained people — and more. Others encounter the 

 well-known second generation problem, a stage of development at which all of 

 the good government jobs are filled and there are few places for the newer 

 graduates. Others have university systems which turn out more highly trained 

 and well-trained people in some occupation than their economies can absorb now 

 or in the foreseeable future. They therefore lose people. Others have relatively 

 high standards of living, but have experienced political changes that lead people 

 to migrate. This has been true of Cuba, Indonesia, and Argentina. Some countries, 

 such as Barbados and the Philippines, deliberately train people for export." 



Intangibility is another characteristic of brain drain that impedes 

 adequate definition. How is the loss of a man to iiis country to be 

 judged if he lives and works elsewhere ? The creative mathematician, 

 nuclear physicist, or a specialist on cancer research from a small de- 

 veloping country who seeks intellectual contacts and research facili- 

 ties available in a larger advanced nation in order to satisfy his 

 professional ambitions may be making a greater contribution to his 

 nation than if he remained home. "The results of his works," writes 

 Frankel, "flow outward and benefit his country as well as the country 

 where he works." The point being made was that "we are dealing with 

 intangibles that are hard to measure." ^^ 



The intractable and multidimensional character of the brain drain 

 problem adds to the difficulties of definition. How is it possible to re- 

 cord the flows and counterflows of mass migration and to calculate 

 accurately the balance of exchange ? Such a balance of human capital 

 is by no means one sided. As George Seltzer observed, "The net factor 

 may not be as adverse, or even negative, as the gross estimate may sug- 

 gest when full account is given to the utilization of expatriate high- 

 level manpower in the less-developed nations." *^ In all likelihood, tlie 

 direction of migration is, moi-eover, not just a one-way stream from the 

 undeveloped to the advanced countries. Reversible patterns are estab- 

 lished by returnees. Frequently the process involves more than two 

 countries as in the case of the migration of physicians from India and 

 Pakistan which may have triggered or intensified the movement of 

 British physicians to the United States, Canada, Australia, or else- 

 where. The migratory process is dynamic, not static, particularly in 

 the case of scientifically oriented professionals who by nature have a 

 cosmopolitan outlook. It can involve the movement of large numbers 

 of people in complex patterns of flow and counterflow in multiple di- 

 rections. To plot the course of this interaction of peoples, much less 



*' Hearings, House Government Operations Committee, Brain Drain, 1968, p. 45. 



** Hearings, Senate Judiciary Committee, International Migration of Talent and Skills, 

 1967, p. 18. Dr. Frankel did not regard such cases as exceptional. "Cases of this sort are 

 not Infrequent," he said ; "and they are the conspicuous cases which often generate the 

 most discussion about the 'brain drain.' " 



*" Seltzer, op. cit., p. 57. 



