VI. Brain Drain: Present and FuTuiiE Trends; Remedies 



Brain drain, a lively foreign policy issue nearly a decade ago, re- 

 mains today a persistent, though less visible, problem for the present 

 and the future. 



Present and Future Trends in Brain Drain to the United States 



Three major trends are perceptible in brain drain : ( 1) The inflow of 

 immigrant scientists and engineers declined in the fiscal year 1972; 

 but (2) that of physicians and surgeons has increased; while (3) 

 there is scattered, but inconclusive, evidence suggesting that there may 

 be the beginning of a trend towards outflow of scientists and engi- 

 neers from the United States. 



The first two trends intersect. According to recent National Science 

 Foundation data on professional immigration, 11,300 immigrant sci- 

 entists and engineers were admitted to the United States in the fiscal 

 year 1972, a number 14 percent below the 13,100 in the fiscal year 1971. 

 The 7,100 immigrant physicians and surgeons admitted in the fiscal 

 year 1972 were not only the largest influx of M.D.s over the past two 

 decades but confirmed a steep upward trend evident in physician-sur- 

 geon inflows since 1970. 



624 



BEGINNING TREND OF OUTFLOW OF SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS FROM 



UNITED STATES 



Changing market conditions in manpower supply, among other fac- 

 tors, have arrested the heretofore unimpeded inflow of scientists and 

 engineers of recent years into the United States and has actually cre- 

 ated a reversal of brain drain. Professionals have been leaving this 

 country and going to other lands. "Pull" factors have become trans- 

 formed into "push" factors. 



Indicators of the changing trend in brain drain became visible in 

 the late 1960's. An appraisal in Bvshess V/eek of October 10, 1970, 

 began : "Suddenly, the United States is no longer a mecca for world 

 scientists. Immigration of technically trained people has dropped 

 sharply .... and many foreign nationals living here are hankering 

 to leave. Moreover, increasing numbers of American scientists and 

 engineers would like to live abroad." '^^^ Traditionally, thousands of 

 young Canadians came every year to the United States for graduate 

 study; they would stay on to work; but now, the report said, "com- 

 paratively few remain." In 1969, fewer than 500 Canadian scientists 

 and engineers immigrated to the United States, about half the 1968 

 figure, A survey of 1,200 scientists from West Germany now in the 



r.r>4 xsp Highliphts, August 1973, p. 1. 



«=s i?j,.sj,ie.ss Week (Oct. 10, 1970). Reproduced In, Intercidtural Education 2 (Decem- 

 ber 1970), pp. 11-12. 



(1248) 



