PHA-Exchange> Gates rejects idea brain drain hurts developing nations

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from maija.kagis at sympatico.ca -----
>
>http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=d0b68ad2-42f9-49f0-8f13-
e018a5dafe97
>
>
>Fast track immigrants with skills, Gates urges
>He rejects idea brain drain hurts developing nations
>
>Steven Edwards
>National Post
>
>Saturday, March 24, 2007
>
>NEW YORK - He's behind the world's biggest charity, which is spending
>billions to help the developing world lift itself from poverty.
>
>Yet Bill Gates is pushing harder than ever for immigration reform that
>would allow the United States, the richest country on the planet, to
>skim off the cream of the few educated workers in developing nations.
>
>At a conference this week in Mexico, the co-founder of the Bill
>&Melinda Gates Foundation said Washington's immigration laws should
>give more flexibility to higher-skilled foreign workers.
>
>"I'm a big believer that as much as possible -- and there's obviously
>political limitations --freedom of migration is a good thing," he
>said. "I think every country in the world should make it easier for
>people with high skills to come in."
>
>It's a position he's long held and it's easy to see the advantage for
>Microsoft, the company he was central in building and which has made
>him the world's richest man.
>
>Of course, taking measures that would effectively deplete the
>intellectual resources of fast rising developing countries like China
>and India may not be a bad thing -- it would enable the West to
>maintain its competitiveness by giving it a counterbalance to lower
>operating costs in those countries.
>
>But development economists have long shown that the "brain drain" from
>poor countries deprives them of the doctors, nurses, teachers and
>engineers they need to break the cycle of poverty.
>
>Every year, about 20,000 skilled workers leave Africa, the world's
>poorest continent and a major recipient through health and development
>work of more than US$13-billion in Gates' largesse since 1994.
>
>Similarly, many of the best and brightest are heading north from Latin
>America, where the Gates Foundation runs programs like Pro Mujer,
>which helps provide loans for poor people.
>
>Gates himself rejects the notion that this brain drain impedes
>development in those countries. When the bright sparks get jobs in the
>West, he says, the money they send home directly helps people who need
>it.
>
>"There's this incredible benefit to the country that they come from of
>the remittances they send back to the country," he said this month in
>testimony before a U.S. Senate committee hearing on strengthening U.S.
>competitiveness.
>
>"And that's a huge thing in terms of bootstrapping those economies,
>letting them send kids back there to school, and having the right
>nutrition and great things."
>
>Remittances have effectively become an income supplement for the
>inhabitants of many developing countries. Figures released this week
>show they exceed direct foreign investment and foreign aid to Latin
>America, source of most legal and illegal immigrants in the United
>States today.
>
>According to Inter-American Investment Bank, Latin American migrant
>workers send more than US$62-billion a year to their families -- and
>that figure could increase to US$100-billion in four years' time. The
>money keeps between eight and 10 million families above the poverty
>line.
>
>But most of it does not come from people who entered the United States
>on visas for highly skilled immigrants.
>
>In 2000, George Borjas, a Harvard economist, found 63% of immigrants
>from Mexico -- by far the biggest contributor to U.S. immigration--
>had not finished high school. Most of the US$23-billion they sent back
>was in the form of small monthly remittances, Inter- American Bank
>says.
>
>Of course, unskilled workers from many other parts of the world find
>it far more difficult to enter the United States -- and
>notwithstanding the positive impact of the money they send home, their
>home countries are arguably worse off for their departure.
>
>A recent UN conference on international migration and development said
>African countries like Angola, Kenya, Burundi and Mozambique have lost
>33% to 55% of their highly educated population to developed countries.
>
>Mary Robinson, a former UN human rights commissioner, says the rich
>countries must start spending more on training their own people,
>instead of raiding poor nations.
>
>"It is of utmost importance to stop the brain drain," she said recently.
>
>One of the most affected areas is the health sector.
>
>"In the U.S., where I am currently living, 500,000 nurses and 200,000
>doctors are needed by the year 2015," Ms. Robinson said. "Nurses are
>being imported. The fact of acquiring them cheaply by not having to
>educate them is unacceptable."
>
>Canada, too, has been guilty of raiding developing world countries for
>medical staff and not training enough at home.
>
>Gates complained to the Senate committee that scientists and engineers
>from India and China working for his software firm wait for more than
>five years to get U.S. permanent resident green cards. Wouldn't his
>foundation's goals be better served if they stayed put and helped to
>build their homelands?


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