World Competition for Skilled Labor

Report Outline
Growing Concern Over the ‘Brain Drain’
Immigration Policy and Manpower Needs
Means to Limit Entry of Skilled Persons
Special Focus

Growing Concern Over the ‘Brain Drain’

An old problem with a new name—the “brain drain” —is stirring concern in both developed and underdeveloped countries. Skilled persons have always tended to migrate to places where opportunities are brightest—to ancient Athens, to imperial Rome or, today, to the United States. The modern brain drain is more serious than that of old, however; it involves the scientific, medical and engineering talent that poorer countries desperately need if they are to provide a better life for their citizens.

It is said that the United States, as principal beneficiary of the brain drain, is in effect receiving substantial foreign aid from the rest of the world. Current U. S. immigration policy encourages the influx of skilled labor. Thus, the famous inscription on the Statue of Liberty—“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore”—now seems out of date. Today, “We ask for your alert, your privileged, your brainy, your talented.”

Migration of Skilled Labor to the United States

In the past 20 years, around five million immigrant men, women and children have been admitted to the United States. Slightly more than one-half of these immigrants were housewives, young persons, retired people, and others with no occupational attachment. Of the remainder, some 400,000 were classified as “professional, technical and kindred workers.”