{"id":8011,"date":"2018-01-12T11:14:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T17:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=8011"},"modified":"2018-01-12T11:14:32","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T17:14:32","slug":"brain-and-other-drains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2018\/01\/brain-and-other-drains.html","title":{"rendered":"Brain (and other) drains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/brain-human-anatomy-anatomy-human-1787622\/\"<\/p>\n

The conventional wisdom on immigration from a place like El Salvador is clear:\u00a0 the country is dependent on those immigrants because they both relieved the pressure of needing to support these people, at home, and because they provide remittances, to the tune of billions of dollars, from the countries in which they now live and work.<\/p>\n

And at the same time, we\u2019re told, these people benefit the receiving countries.\u00a0 They\u2019re ambitious and work hard, and are better able to put their talents, such as they are, to good use in these healthier economies.\u00a0 It\u2019s a win-win.<\/p>\n

Here are some numbers:<\/p>\n

According to a 2013 UNICEF profile of the country<\/a>, El Salvador, with a total population of 6,340,000, there are\u00a0 1,463,000 migrants to other countries, nearly all, 1,372,000 to the United States.\u00a0 Pew reports<\/a> that this figure increased to 1,420,000 by 2015.\u00a0 This means that about 20% of all Salvadorans live outside the country.\u00a0 And the country has come to depend on the money they send to their families back home, about $4.5 billion annually<\/a>, or 17.1% of their economy.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean that the population of the country has declined by 20%, to be sure, as the fertility rate has only in the last several years dropped to below-replacement levels<\/a>, after being much higher than replacement-level until the 2000s.\u00a0 \u00a0So, all other things being equal, it\u2019s a net positive for the country, right?\u00a0 No loss in population but extra cash coming in from outside.<\/p>\n

But consider that we Americans like to think of ourselves as special because our ancestors were, among those in their Old Country cities and villages, the risk-takers, the bold, ambitious, energetic ones, who brought that energy to the United States.\u00a0 Has El Salvador lost the top 20% of its people, measured by the level of ambition, determination, ability to take risks and try\u00a0new things and succeed?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s probably not quantifiable, but in trying to find an answer to that question, I did find a blog post that reported that what has been happening is a true brain drain.\u00a0 This is from the Center for Immigration Studies<\/a>, which is fairly restrictionist on immigration but diligent\u00a0about marshalling statistics to document its claims, and it cites a report from the Central Bank of El Salvador to say<\/p>\n

based on a survey of immigrants in the U.S., 4 out of 10 emigrants were professionals who met the academic requirements for the majority of companies in El Salvador.<\/p>\n

The report shows Salvadoran immigrants send 15 percent of their income back to their home country as remittances for their family. Most of these immigrants, while considered professionals in their home country, work in the service industry in the United States.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Further citing a link which now redirects to ElSalvador.com, the post says<\/p>\n

The president of the bank, Oscar Cabrera, noted the Salvadoran economy is not producing enough jobs to absorb the thousands of youth that enter the labor force each year. Cabrera added, \u201cRemittances received from 1980 to 2012 represent 11 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), but the cost of this migration is 11.8 percent, so that our society is losing with this outflow of professionals.\u201d The bank\u2019s president explained the country could not continue with the loss of skilled workers. There is an opportunity cost, he said \u2013 the brain drain reduces productivity, it causes a shortage of skilled labor, and hinders innovation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As far as Haiti,\u00a0here\u2019s a dramatic statistic:\u00a0 a webpage dated 2016<\/a> reports that 81% of Haiti\u2019s university graduates have left the country.\u00a0 The Nation<\/a> reports that this is the most severe brain drain in the world.\u00a0 And they\u2019re generally not trying their luck in the United States, but moving to Chile<\/a>; previously Brazil was popular until its recent economic troubles.<\/p>\n

This shouldn\u2019t be a surprise.\u00a0 In Europe, there are ongoing concerns about a brain drain from Eastern European countries, and from the former East Germany.\u00a0 Not long ago, the Economist had an article<\/a> that, at least in the case of Poland, their overall labor shortage caused by its workers leaving for Germany, the UK, and the like, has been partially mitigated by immigration into Poland from the Ukraine.\u00a0 While these are largely manual workers, perhaps the high level of education in Poland means that loss of university graduates isn\u2019t as worrying; it\u2019s not clear.<\/p>\n

So we can pat ourselves on the back for how welcoming we are to sh**hole-originating immigrants, or we can block them, but that\u2019s missing a significant part of the picture of how their departure impacts happening at home.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/brain-human-anatomy-anatomy-human-1787622\/<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The conventional wisdom on immigration from a place like El Salvador is clear:\u00a0 the country is dependent on those immigrants because they both relieved the pressure of needing to support these people, at home, and because they provide remittances, to the tune of billions of dollars, from the countries in which they now live and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":8015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[820,821,822,46],"class_list":["post-8011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brain-drain","tag-el-salvador","tag-haiti","tag-immigration"],"yoast_head":"\nBrain (and other) drains<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The conventional wisdom on immigration from a place like El Salvador is clear:\u00a0 the country is dependent on those immigrants because they 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