India’s Brain Drain Persists

The following is a guest post by P. Pushkar, a former lecturer in international-development studies at McGill University who is now based in Gurgaon, India.
Many researchers who have been looking at data on international migration believe that the ideas of “brain drain” and “brain gain” have become less relevant in the 21st century. Instead, there are signs of “brain circulation,” in which skilled workers move around the world more freely than before to the benefit of all nations. In Indian higher education, however, little has changed; its most talented scholars continue to leave for Western countries. The paradigm of brain drain and brain gain stubbornly persists. A recently released study by Wan-Ying Chang and Lynn M. Milan of the National Science Foundation found that only 5.2 percent of Indians who study outside their home country to earn doctorates in science, engineering, and health return home. These numbers, which are based on a 2008 survey, are substantially lower than the 20.4 percent of foreign graduates who reported working or living in their countries of origin. Read more...