Human capital flight (or 'brain drain') is the large-scale emigration of individuals with technical skills or knowledge; it is normally due to conflict, lack of opportunity, political instability, or health risks. Brain drain is usually regarded as an economic cost, since emigrants usually take with them the fraction of value of their training sponsored by the government. It is a parallel of capital flight, which refers to the same movement of financial capital. Brain drain is often associated with deskilling of emigrants in their country of destination while their country of emigration experiences the draining of skilled individuals.
The term brain drain was coined by the Royal Society to describe the emigration of "scientists and technologists" to North America from post-war Europe. The converse phenomenon is 'brain gain', which occurs when there is a large-scale immigration of technically qualified persons. Brain drain can, at least in theory, be stopped by providing individuals who have expertise with career opportunities and giving them opportunities to prove their capabilities.
Brain drain is common amongst developing nations, such as the former colonies of Africa, the island nations of the Caribbean, and particularly in centralized economies such as former East Germany and the Soviet Union, where marketable skills were not financially rewarded.
The UNDP estimates that India loses $2 billion a year because of the emigration of computer experts to the U.S. Indian students going abroad for their higher studies costs India a foreign exchange outflow of $10 billion annually.
An opposite situation, in which many trained and talented individuals seek entrance into a country, is called a brain gain; this may create a brain drain in the nations that the individuals are leaving. A Canadian symposium in the late Nineties gave circulation to the new term, in response to Canada alluring more skilled...