1138 



ment. For the discontented educated elite, emigration is an escape 

 hatch to a new and successful life; his discontentment provides the 

 necessary "push." 



Cultural and Intellectual Inadequacies 



Thus it appears that migration is more an effect than a cause of 

 underdevelopment and that underdevelopment is the seminal source 

 of brain drain. Even in countries adversely affected by migration, 

 other factors generally far outweigh the effects of migration.^^^ Among 

 the serious economic factors are one-crop economies, shortages of 

 capital and foreign exchange, economic instability and inflation, re- 

 source scarcity and shortcomings in management — all indicators of 

 underdevelopment that contribute to the "push" of outward migra- 

 tion. Likewise in the cultural and intellectual realm, arrested tech- 

 nological development and scientific stagnation, common characteris- 

 tics of the LDCs, "push" trained manpower into migration. For it is 

 axiomatic that economic resources and trained manpower are neces- 

 sary ingredients to creating the essential cadres of talent that in turn 

 can construct a viable scientific-technological infrastructure. 



INADEQUATE SCIENTinC-TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE 



Lacking in most LDCs are the elementary necessities for the de- 

 velopment of science and technology : adequate government funding 

 for research, institutions to carry on research, a sufficiency of labora- 

 tories and equipment, journals and learned societies to disseminate 

 findings, and most important, a scientific tradition, "Only a compar- 

 atively small number of governments of developing countries allo- 

 cate substantial funds for research," said the report of the U.N. Sec- 

 retary Genera] on brain drain. "Even among the twenty or thirty na- 

 tions who do research, sharply different levels of expenditure, plant, 

 equipment, and professional opportunity occur. These differences are a 

 factor leading to brain drain even among these countries." ^^^ 



A UNITAR study on brain drain from Lebanon expressed a view 

 applicable to many other LDCs: "A major reason for the loss of the 

 best talents in the country is the lack of facilities for research in the 

 institutions." And speaking of the Arab world generally the report 

 said: "Extensive interviews with a -wide variety of people indicate 

 that the main reason why Arab natural scientists emigrate is because 

 of the conditions in Arab national universities, such as lack of research 

 facilities." "* 



With reference to Cameroon the report stated that facilities for 

 training and research in the higher institutions of learning were ex- 

 tremely limited. As evidence it cited the fact that there was still no de- 

 partment or college of medicine. 



i^! CIMT Studv, p. 670. ^ ^^„ ^. 



233 Report of tl.N. Secretary General, Outflow of Trained Personnel from LDCs, Nov. 5, 

 1968. p. 38 :68. 



»* United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). The Brain Dram 

 from Five Developing Countries: Cameroon, Colombia. Lebanon, the Philippines, Trinidad 

 and Tobago, (New Yorlj : 1971), pp. 86 and 91. fUNITAR Research Report No. 15). Here- 

 after cited as, UNITAR, Brain Drain from Five LDCs, 1971. 



