What's wrong with the brain drain (?)

Developing World Bioethics

Volumn 12, Issue 3, 2012, Pages 113-120

  Brassington, Iain ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Brain drain; Duties; Education; Global South; Justice; Political obligation; Poverty

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; DEVELOPED COUNTRY; DEVELOPING COUNTRY; ECONOMICS; EMPLOYMENT; ETHICS; FOREIGN WORKER; HEALTH CARE MANPOWER; HUMAN; MIGRATION; MORALITY; ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT; PHYSICIAN; POVERTY; SOCIOECONOMICS;

DEVELOPED COUNTRIES; DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION; EMPLOYMENT; FOREIGN MEDICAL GRADUATES; HEALTH MANPOWER; HUMANS; MORALS; PHYSICIANS; POVERTY; PRIVATIZATION; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS;

EID: 84868542775     PISSN: 14718731     EISSN: 14718847     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-8847.2011.00300.x     Document Type: Article

References (15)

1. See, inter alia, T. Pogge. 2008. World Poverty and Human Rights. Cambridge, UK: Polity: passim.
2. See also, C. Hooper. Adding Insult to Injury. J Med Ethics 2008; 34: 684-687.
3. J-C. Dumont & G. Lemaître. Beyond the Headlines: New Evidence on the Brain Drain. Revue Economique 2005; 56: 1295-1296.
4. For an explanation of ISCED levels, see UNESCO. 1997. International Standard Classification of Education: ISCED 1997. Paris France: UNESCO. Available at: http://www.unesco.org/education/information/nfsunesco/doc/isced_1997.htm2011.
5. The caveat here is that, though some poor countries appear to lose few graduates by comparison, this can be explained by the supposition that a graduate degree from these countries is worth less. So the fact that Mozambique exports fewer graduates than Jamaica does not mean that Mozambique has retained its experts; it may simply mean that being a Mozambican graduate is no guarantee of sufficient expertise to get a job overseas. Thanks to Jo Wolff for making this point.
6. K. Allen. 2009. Maternal Mortality across the World: Malawi. London, UK: British Broadcasting Corporation. Available at: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8320781.stm2011.
7. United Nations Development Program (UNDP). 2009. Human Development Report 2009: Human Development Index 2007 and its Components. New York, NY: UNDP. Available at: http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/88.html2011.
8. C. Eppig, C. Fincher & R. Thornhill. Parasite Prevalence and the Worldwide Distribution of Cognitive Ability. Proc R Soc B 2010.
9. D. Kapur & J. McHale. 2005. Give us your Best and Brightest. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development: 85.
10. See UNDP. 2009. Human Development Report 2009: International Financial Flow - Remittances, Official Development Assistance and Foreign Direct Investment. New York, NY: UNDP. Available at: http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/57.html2011.
11. P. Singer. Famine, Affluence and Morality. Philos Public Aff 1972; 1: 229.
12. This argument was suggested to me by John Harris.
13. And, of course, we might also speculate that a government sufficiently illiberal to restrict movement like this would be illiberal in other ways, thereby creating more of an incentive for those who can to move out.
14. I shall use the word 'polis' from here on to indicate something along the lines of the civil institutions, formal and informal, within a state.
15. Granted, this might not be enforceable; but the moral case could be made all the same.