1186 



may have. This is particularly true of many of the developing countries where a 

 disproportionate number of the most able and best educated go into the medical 

 profession.*'"' 



The LDC is tlie loser, if not in the short run, then in the long run, for 

 the erosion, of a nation's educated elite saps its manpower reserve, 

 weakens the intellectual fabric of the nation, sows frustration and 

 demoralization, reduces the possibilities of institutional change, and 

 prevents a type of environmental buildup for creating and propagat- 

 ing a spirit of intellectualism and scientism so necessary for modern 

 development.^^^ For, as the CIMT study observed, "The talent elite, 

 small in numbers but potent in influence, provides an effective and 

 forward looking third force — including, eventually a new type of 

 politician and bureaucrat.'' ^^^^ "This top fraction of a country's labor 

 force is vital to the modernization process," the CIMT study said. 

 Less educated manpower elements work far below their capacity if the 

 superstructure of high-level manpower is weak and thin. "Without 

 a generous leaven of educated men who combine natural leadership 

 qualities with the skills and values conferred by education," the study 

 concluded, "the structure of human resources can never become a 

 prime mover in modernization." *-^ It is axiomatic that development 

 must come from within, and if the skilled human resources are drained 

 off, then it follows that development will be arrested.*^** 



<=«Ibld., p. 66. 



<-' Under Secretary of State Rostow acknowledged that brain drain adversely affected 

 derelopment in the LDCs. In Senate testimony he said : "In some instances, we know, this 

 phenomenon weakens those countries, and threatens their capacity for development." (Hear- 

 ins><, Senate Judiciary Committee. International Migration of Talent and Skills, 1968, p. 43.) 



In a study of brain drain of Palestinian and Jordanian Arabs to the United States, Lafl 

 Ibrahim Jaafarl concluded : "The Middle East homeland can only suffer from the continuous 

 drain upon its pool of potentially highly qualified manpower. In the long run. whatever 

 regime may be in power, only a scientifically and technologically trained body of national 

 residents will be able to engage In the necessary development of the region." "(Jaafarl, op. 

 clt.. p. 129.) 



That the Arabs are becoming increasingly concerned about the loss of professional talent 

 to the West was revealed by a study recently published in Commerce du Levant of Beirut. 

 According to the study, the Arab world Is one of the areas suffering most severely from brain 

 drain to the industrialized West. It showed that between 1962-1968, 37.60.S Arab "brains" 

 emigrated to the United States, which attracted the largest number. Of those, 6,560 were 

 technicians, 1,283 were qualified engineers, 481 biologists, 483 doctors, 202 nurses, and 79 

 socio'oglsts. The major sources were Jordan (9,548), Egvpt (9,315), Lebanon (8,191), Iraq 

 r4.192). Morocco (2,473), and Syria f2,406). Another 15, 207 emigrated to Canada between 

 1962-1967, and France, the leading European recipient, accepted 456 Arab specialists be- 

 tween 1962-1966. (Middle East Economic Digest 18 (Jan. 18. 1974) p. 88.) 



428 CIMT studv. p. 691. 



♦Mbid.. p. 690. 



*'" Dr. Daniel Bell, professor of sociology at Harvard TTnlverslty. gave the following 

 appraisal of the value of talent In modernization : ". . . It means that the health and 

 strength of the Intellectual community is not only a matter of a general concern 

 to society, but a necessity In the organization of change. It means the sources of Innova- 

 tion in the society come from the Intellectual institutions, the universities, the research 

 institutes, the research corporations. It means moreover that the scarcest resource to the 

 society is essentially talent for human capital In the words of the economists) and the 

 husbanding of human capital, the Identification of talent is a much more different cycle 

 than that of financial capital." fDanlel Bell, "The Management of Information and 

 Knowledge," Jn, U.S. Congress, House. Committee on Science and Astronautics, The 

 Manarrement of Information and Knoieledpe, 1970. d. 15.) 



In the United Nations' most current appraisal of brain drain from the LDCs (.Tan. 18, 

 1974K Secretary General Waldhelm gave the following assessment of the loss of pro- 

 fessional talent and its impact upon development : 



"34. The financial loss suffered by a developing country due to the outflow of trained 

 personnel Is "nly the visible tip of the Iceberg. The effects unon the process of develop- 

 ment are as important, if not more so. The capacity of developing countries to acliieve 

 the progress associated with development depends upon the existence of structures within 

 which this progress can take place and upon the existence of trained persons who can 

 organize these structures and play key leadership roles within them. The structures Include 

 government, industries, agriculture and the social services : the trained persons Include 

 engineers, scientists, teachers, doctors and nurses. These persons can function only In 

 the context of organized structures. Conversely, the structures are useless without the 

 trained personnel to make them run. Wlien therefore these trained personnel emigrate, the 

 operation of the structures is seriously disrupted unless replacements are found from a 



