1182 



forms, tlie unemployed represent a loss to the economy of the country. 

 Miofration, therefore, relieves the country of an economic liability and 

 produces a positive gain.^" 



Emigration of surplus talent also carries benefits derived from both 

 an income distribution point of view and an increase in output. The 

 increase in marginal production of the remaining professionals can be 

 substantial. According to Prof. George Coutsoumaris of the Athens 

 Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration, produc- 

 tivity for certain professions in Greece would be much less if there 

 were not an average annual outflow of nearly 25 percent of new gradu- 

 ates during the past decade. Removal of pressure from excess supply, 

 Coutsoumaris argues, also allows for more efficient organization and 

 use of remaining resources,*^* 



Not to be overlooked are the compensating economic benefits derived 

 from remittances sent home from immigrant professionals. In the case 

 of the Philippine Republic alone, $46 million has been added to the 

 country's foreign exchange reserve in personal remittances between 

 1955 and July 1969."^ Acceleration of professional inflows to the 

 United States' in the last 4 years have no doubt increased this figure 

 substantially. Total remittances from all other LDC immigrant pro- 

 fessionals to their home countries would no doubt reach a sizeable sum. 



Finally, donor LDCs gain from the relief in political pressures 

 building up from economic manpower conditions of oversupply and 

 underdemand of professionals. Alessandro Sil] gave the following 

 explanation of the safety valve thesis : "The V.S. market . . . works 

 as a sort of decompression valve for all the dissatisfactions, frustra- 

 tions, and ambitions of the scientists and engineers of the rest of the 

 world." "« 



IMPROVED POSSIBILITIES FOR SOCIAL CHANGE AND PROGRESS 



Finally, brain drain can act as a primary catalyst, stimulating a 

 nation to initiate social change and self-renewal ; it can provide in- 

 centive to modernize and adapt to the exigencies of powerful inter- 

 national market forces.*^ ^ 



Loss of prime talent can provoke self-examination by a nation and 

 generate an appraisal of established national institutions. As Professor 

 Don Patinkin of Hebrew University, Jerusalem explained: "To the 

 extent.. . . that fears of the 'brain drain' force countries to work 

 against internal interests and pressure groups in order to try to gen- 

 erate similar conditions within their own borders, it is only for the 

 best." ^18 



*" Report of U.N. Secretary General, Outflow of Trained Personnel from LDCs, Nov. 5, 

 1968, p. 43.84. 



*" Coutsoumaris, op. clt., pp. 178-179. 



"5 UNITAR, Brain Drain from Five LDCs, 1971, pp. 107-108. 



"" Silj, op. cit., p. 10. 



*" Professor Adams discusses this matter In, Hearings, House Government Operations 

 Committee, Brain Drain, 1968, p. 54. 



<^* Patinkin, op. clt., pp. 98-99. Abdul Said made a similar observation. He concluded 

 his study of brain drain : "One cannot however, disregard the fact that many nations 

 are beginning to have a second look at themselves, their institutions, and the Brain Drain 

 phenomena may thus be considered a positive force." (Said, op. cit., p. 26.) See also 

 comments by Deena R. Khatkhate, op. clt., p. 38. 



