1210 



He examines the case of brain drain within and from Scotland and 

 correlates this process with its subsequent decline in achievements to 

 illustrate his thesis, adding that Britains should regard Scotland as a 

 warning. "The deterioration it has suffered in both cultural achieve- 

 ment and economic prosperity," he concludes, "could well be due to a 

 prolonged brain drain, and the next victim could be Britain as a 

 whole." 



It is not the purpose here to judge the validity of this thesis, but only 

 to admit the question and to suggest the following generalization : If 

 the case of Britain, which by virtue df strong and long established 

 institutions and traditions has enormous recuperative powers, could 

 be judged to be so adversely affected by the brain drain of its intellec- 

 tual elite, how much more seriously affected might be the LDCs which 

 Jack these regenerative powers ? 



WIDENING GAP BETWEEN LDC's AND ADVANCED COUNTRIES 



Perhaps more plausible than genetic degeneration as a negative 

 effect of brain drain is the disputed assertion that brain drain from 

 the LDCs widens the gap of development between the developing and 

 advanced countries. Internationalists among brain drain specialists 

 minimize, and some even deny, the negative impact of the gap on 

 development. Perceiving criteria for judging the welfare of the 

 developing countries in the larger context, of world welfare, they tend 

 to concern themselves more with the latter at the expense of the 

 former. For Professor Johnson, development is an integrated process 

 of accumulating material, human, and intellectual capital and evolv- 

 ing a culture that promotes its efficient use. To assert that there is a 

 simple and quick road to development, as he seems to imply brain drain 

 critics contend, by substituting human for material capital as a crucial 

 element in the developing process, is to resurrect a myth.^^* Professor 

 Grubel states categorically that "research has thus far failed to pro- 

 duce reliable estimates of the number of persons in the brain drain 

 flows, nor has it yielded meaningful empirical measures of the welfare 

 losses of the population in the losing countries." ^^^ The migration of 

 highly skilled persons to the United States, he contends, "only rarely 

 reduces the welfare of individuals remaining in the emigrant's native 

 country and often may even increase it." "*' And Baldwin, viewing the 

 problem from the internationalist perspective of overflow rather than 

 brain drain, concludes an analysis of Indian manpower: "There is 

 practically no one, in India or outside, who feels that India's economic 

 growth is being held back because the country has lost educated man- 

 power." ^^^ 



Other specialists contend, with varying force, that brain drain 

 does indeed impair progress in the developing countries and that it 



«24 Johnson, op. clt., p. 86. „ „ ._, ^ t. ,. . ,. 



=25 Herbert G. Grubel, "The Reduction of the Brain Drain : Problems and Policies, 

 Jfmervo 6. No. 4, (Summer lfl68). p. 558. ' ^ „ ^ ^. ^ ^ ^ x. ,. ok 



528 Grubel, "Nonreturnlng Foreign Students and the Cost of Student Exchange, p. 25. 



5^7 Mr. Baldwin continues : "Indeed, government officials have more than once said they 

 hoped tiiat educated Indians In large numbers would not return, since the country has no 

 way of putting them to work." (Baldwin, op. clt., p. 365.) 



