Can the brain drain help poverty?

The Global Post ran a great story on the African Middle Class yesterday.  “Africa’s middle class,” says Vijay Mahajan, author of Africa Rising, “is the great economic engine that will drive development across the continent.

That growth, author of the article Andrew Meldrum argues, is a result of better educational opportunities and entrepreneurship.  Interestingly he also cites the brain drain.  That is the phenomenon where a country’s best and brightest leave for lucrative opportunities in the West, leaving their developing nation bereft of human capital.  Economists and development experts worldwide agree that the brain drain is one of the primary reasons poor countries continue to be poor.  Meldrum sees it a different way.

The brain drain, Meldrum notes, has injected capital into the poorest nations, where banking is still rudimentary and capital markets are non-existent.  “They send back significant remittances that get others educated.  Over time they contribute to the continent’s development even if it is from a distance.”

How they contribute is through ideas and standards.  Quoting Center for Global Development senior fellow Vijaya Ramachandran, Meldrum points out that the brain drain “(are) bringing valuable skills and an interaction with the First World.  (They are) also bringing a view of how things work in the First World.”

That’s a point that economist and Marginal Revolution blogger Tyler Cowen made when I sat down with him in his George Mason University office late last year (where he has great artwork).  Except Cowen wasn’t referring to the best and brightest.  He was referring to unskilled labor.  I agree.

More than the best and brightest, who tend to come from the upper classes, the unskilled are more likely to influence innovation and growth in the developing world.  That’s because unlike the upper classes who do not interact with their country’s poorest, the unskilled continue to have ties in those communities.  As a result they’re able to encourage this group to pursue ideas as well as strive for and demand excellence – whether from their elected officials or service providers.  I’ve seen this happen with my own mother.  When she returns to Turkey she requests that her taxi drivers not smoke.  Then she tells them to put on their seat belt and drive slower.

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