Jagdish Bhagwati is a Chazen Advisor, Professor of Economics and Law at Columbia University, and Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He recently edited, with Gordon Hanson, Skilled Migration Today.
(DeansTalk, 27 December, "In Defense of Globalization", book)
While developed countries are angst-ridden over mostly illegal immigration by unskilled workers from developing countries, a different set of concerns has surfaced in Africa, in particular, over the legal outflow of highly skilled people to developed countries. This outflow is supposedly a new and damaging “brain drain,” with rich countries actively luring away needed skills from poor countries.
This fear is misplaced...
The Solution
First, stop crying over the fact that the diaspora is not returning home. Instead, nurture the loyalty of professionals settling abroad, so that they assist their home countries in a variety of ways...
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...when development has taken off, and conditions have improved sufficiently to attract people back to their homelands, the hugely increased diaspora would indeed return, as they have done in India, South Korea, and China.
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