经济学人下载:人才外流,是得还是失?

The possibility of emigration may even have beneficial effects on those who choose to stay, by giving people in poor countries an incentive to invest in education. A study of Cape Verdeans finds that an increase of ten percentage points in young people’s perceived probability of emigrating raises the probability of their completing secondary school by around eight points. Another study looks at Fiji. A series of coups beginning in 1987 was seen by Fijians of Indian origin as permanently harming their prospects in the country by limiting their share of government jobs and political power. This set off a wave of emigration. Yet young Indians in Fiji became more likely to go to university even as the outlook at home dimmed, in part because Australia, Canada and New Zealand, three of the top destinations for Fijians, put more emphasis on attracting skilled migrants. Since some of those who got more education ended up staying, the skill levels of the resident Fijian population soared.

移民他国的可能性还会对那些选择留下的人起到积极影响，因为这会鼓励穷国的人们增加教育投入。Cape Verdeans的一项研究显示，年轻人移民的可能性每上升十个百分点,他们完成中学教育的可能性就上升了约八个百分点。另一项研究是关于斐济的。印度裔斐济人认为1987年开始的一系列政变，会通过限制他们对政府工作的参与度和政治权力，从而永远损害他们在斐济的前途。这掀起了移民潮。然而，尽管祖国的前景黯淡，留在斐济的年轻印度人更有可能上大学，一部分由于三大斐济人最热衷的移民国——澳大利亚，加拿大和新西兰，更加重视吸引有技能的移民。由于有些受过更多教育的人最终留在了斐济，斐济居民的技能水平大幅提升。

Passport to riches
通往富国的护照

Migrants can also affect their home country directly. In a recent book about the Indian diaspora, Devesh Kapur of the University of Pennsylvania argues that Indians in Silicon Valley helped shape the regulatory structure for India’s home-grown venture-capital industry. He also argues that these people helped Indian software companies break into the American market by vouching for their quality. Finally, migrants may return home, often with skills that would have been hard to pick up had they never gone abroad. The study of Romanian migrants found that returnees earned an average of 12-14% more than similar people who had stayed at home. Letting educated people go where they want looks like the brainy option.

移民还可以给他们的祖国起到直接的作用。在最近一本有关印度移民的书中，宾夕法尼亚大学的Devesh Kapur称，在硅谷的印度人帮助印度的本土风险投资产业建立了管理架构。他还说，这些移民为印度的软件公司进行质量担保，帮助他们打入了美国市场。最终，移民们可能回到祖国，那时通常拥有了他们在本国很难学到的技能。有关罗马尼亚移民的研究发现，归国的移民收入比国内同行平均高出12-14%。因此，让受过很好教育的人们移民到他们想去的国家，似乎是一个明智之选。