经济学人下载:人才外流,是得还是失?

Economics focus经济聚焦

Drain or gain? 人才外流，是得还是失？

Poor countries can end up benefiting when their brightest citizens emigrate 穷国最终会从人才外流中获益

WHEN people in rich countries worry about migration, they tend to think of low-paid incomers who compete for jobs as construction workers, dishwashers or farmhands. When people in developing countries worry about migration, they are usually concerned at the prospect of their best and brightest decamping to Silicon Valley or to hospitals and universities in the developed world. These are the kind of workers that countries like Britain, Canada and Australia try to attract by using immigration rules that privilege college graduates.

发达国家担心移民，他们通常考虑的是对收入要求较低的移民会和他们竞争就业岗位，例如建筑工人，洗碗工或是农场工人。而发展中国家担心移民，则通常考虑的是，他们最优秀的人才流入了硅谷，或是发达国家的一些医院和大学。而这些人才正是英国、加拿大、澳大利亚这样的国家需要的，他们通过优待大学生的移民政策来吸引这样的人才。

Lots of studies have found that well-educated people from developing countries are particularly likely to emigrate. By some estimates, two-thirds of highly educated Cape Verdeans live outside the country. A big survey of Indian households carried out in 2004 asked about family members who had moved abroad. It found that nearly 40% of emigrants had more than a high-school education, compared with around 3.3% of all Indians over the age of 25. This “brain drain” has long bothered policymakers in poor countries. They fear that it hurts their economies, depriving them of much-needed skilled workers who could have taught at their universities, worked in their hospitals and come up with clever new products for their factories to make.

很多研究发现，发展中国家受过良好教育的人们尤其可能移民。据估计，三分之二受过良好教育的Cape Verdeans都居住在国外。2004年对印度家庭展开了一次大范围调查，询问了他们移居国外的家庭成员情况。调查发现，近40%的移民接受过高等教育，而所有25岁以上的印度人中，这一比例仅为3.3%。这种“人才外流”的现象长期困扰着穷国的政策制定者们。他们担心这会有损经济发展，使得他们丧失亟需的有技能的人才，他们本可在大学里教书，在医院里工作，或是研发出可供生产的新产品。