1295 



or small, that do not share in this pattern. Many other institutions and indi- 

 viduals have become caught up in it. A recent poll among international devel- 

 opers conducted by Paul Hoffman estimates that 10 percent or less of the poten- 

 tial human resources of emerging nations being utilized.^"^ 



Other scholars and international authorities have made similarly 

 harsh judgments. Dr. George Seltzer, professor of economics at the 

 University of Minnesota, stated categorically that brain drain was 

 "perverting specific international programs for aid and technical as- 

 sistance." ^^2 Dr. John C. Shearer, Director of the Manpower Research 

 and Training Center at Oklahoma State University, presented data 

 to the House Government Operations Committee that, he said, "dra- 

 matize the heavy loss of highly trained talent for underdeveloped 

 countries." This brain drain, he said, "significantly offsets U.S. efforts 

 to encourage the development of high-level human resources as the 

 essential stimulators and implementors of economic and social devel- 

 opment of poor countries." ^^^ Philip H. Coombs, Director, Interna- 

 tional Institute for Education Planning, UNESCO/Paris, stated that 

 in some instances "the good that donor nations are doing with one 

 hand is being canceled by the other, consciously or not." It was "coun- 

 ter-productive to be hiring away some of their best people for use in 

 the donor country," while at the same time devoting millions of dollars 

 and man-hours of aid effort in helping the LDCs to "train their spe- 

 cialized manpower and to build their own educational institutions." ^" 



FMGs as ^''Reverse Foreign Aid^\ — Medical brain drain to the 

 United States has been portrayed both as a countervailing force to 

 foreign assistance and as "reverse foreign aid." In an oft-quoted 

 assessment, Dr. Kelly AVest equated the inflow of FMGs with com- 

 parative costs in building and operating new medical schools. The 

 value of this migration, he once said, "may be estimated at something 

 of the order to us of $100 million per year, which exceeds somewhat 

 the total value of our foreign aid in the medical field." ^^^ The Pan 

 American Health Organization (PAHO) study estimated that the 

 value of the estimated 300 FMGs coming to the United States from 

 Latin America annually was "roughly equal to that of all U.S. medi- 

 cal assistance to Latin America." ^®*^ Stevens and Vermeulen described 

 the United States as "the recipient of substantial 'reverse foreign 

 aid,' " because it "is reaping the rewards of investments made by other 

 countries in the education of physicians" while "those countries are 



"""■ Selected Readings on International Education, House Committee on Education and 

 Labor, 1966, pp. 249-250. Drawing from his experience in Korea, Mr. Henderson gave this 

 example of brain drain undermining foreign aid : 



"I vividly remember the first electrical engineers we in the U.S. embassy in Korea 

 considered for study in the United States in 1949. One ended up at Westlnghouse, another 

 at General Electric ; a third, whom we did not send, is now a Columbia professor. They 

 have since been joined here by several dozen more. Our aid program has to make up for 

 them. Americans with no better engineering training than these Korean graduates, but 

 speaking no Korean, devoid of either knowledge of or interest in Korea or its culture, are 

 sent to advise USAID's electrical projects in Korea. They receive high salaries, live behind 

 barbed wire, subsist on artificial PX and commissary support, and last all of 2 or 3 years. 

 The same could be said of the programs in many other countries. Congress complains of 

 the costs but contributes to them by passing such bills as H.R. 7700 and Public Law 

 37-885 of October 24, 1962, allowing thousands of such trained foreigners to remain 

 permanently here. If we could figure the value of what we and our Congress thus remove 

 from development, it would run into hundreds of millions of dollars." 



'"" Seltzer, op. cit.. p. 56. 



'83 Hearings, House Government Operations Committee, Brain Drain, 1968, p. 22. 



■'3* Coombs, op. cit., t). 62. . „. ^. , 



765 Department of State. Proceedings of Workshop on the International Migration of 

 Talent and Skills. October 1966, p. 40. . 



7M Report on Brain Drain from. Latin America, Pan American Health Organization, 1966, 

 p. 16. 



