Braindrain

A brain drain ( spelling in German also brain drain, english brain drain, literally brain - drain in terms of talent loss, thus the brain drain an economy ) is called in contrast to brain gain, the economic losses caused by the emigration of highly skilled or talented people from a country. This applies especially to academics, artists, entrepreneurs and skilled workers.

Many (not all) economic and technological flowering times to go back waves of immigration, many downfalls to emigrate in particular the more talented minds of persecuted minorities. Therefore, there is some competition for the best minds, with considerable disadvantages for countries that do not have the means to keep their talents, and considerable benefits for the other countries and for the affected people worldwide.

Historic brain drain

Again and again occurring expulsions of Jews have had in participating countries initiative considerable disadvantages: Spain is likely to have cost including the elimination of Jewish bankers its great power of the 16th century; Germany and Austria have lost by the forced emigration of Jews and Nazi opponents after Adolf Hitler came to power, the Holocaust, and again after the end of the Second World War, many top scientists, artists and entrepreneurs in particular the U.S. and the UK.

The emigration of Huguenots ( Protestants persecuted from France) to Prussia brought disadvantages for France with him. With the Huguenots and other persecuted groups in some parts of Europe, including much craftsmanship went to Prussia knowledge.

Intra- German problem, the outflow of human capital in the form of educated people of the GDR presented in the FRG dar. Many academics, including many doctors left the GDR before and even after the Wall was built in 1961. This represented an economic but also a political problem for the GDR is because the recruitment of new elites ( in science, economics and politics ) took more and more difficult, while the Federal Republic of Germany benefited from the well-trained forces from the GDR. This problem has been, and also affects other countries of the former Eastern Bloc.

Brain drain today

In Europe, the term is gaining more importance again with discussions on the creation of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA, European Higher Education Area, " Bologna process"), and Research Area ( ERA, European Research Area). One can distinguish several phenomena:

• Within European Union brain drain from southern and eastern countries in the richer countries of the EU, particularly in the area of ​​Blue Banana
• Brain drain from Europe and from Asia (especially China) in the USA
• Brain drain from Germany to other countries with better working conditions (see Higher Education Act ) or research conditions (see Stem Cell Research, Embryo Protection Act )

According to DAAD ( German Academic Exchange Service) studied in 2005, about 10,000 students at German higher education in the United States.

According to the TASD study finds a brain drain of trained Turkish-born persons from Germany instead of Turkey.

The difficult return

In order to ensure that students and researchers return to their home country after desired experience abroad again, several countries have launched their own actions and networks, such as the " Network for Researchers " of the Office of Science & Technology of the Austrian Embassy in the United States.

At the moment, only one in four specialist comes back to Germany. Reasons for this are, according to German Scholars Organization, the poor pay and difficult -to-follow appeal procedures for professorships in Germany, and better supervision of research abroad. This leads for example to the economics that works out of the 100 strongest research German economists under the age of 45 every second outside Germany, as in April 2007, according to a study.

Why emigrate German academics and often not return to Germany, is empirically so far not been investigated. A possible, often cited reason why these people remain abroad permanently, is that many of them belong to the time of Wegzuges an age group in which the social and economic living conditions quickly consolidate (marriage, family formation, integration of children in a different -language school system, acquisition of real estate, investments in foreign currency). These immigrants and their children find abroad not only strong new bonds, but often a fully functional home, so, maybe no basis exists for a desire to return to the country of birth.

On the other hand, in certain countries (especially Scandinavian, but partly also eg France and Spain ) report academics, even those who already have a family in Germany or plan, find better conditions for their desires, work, career and family while maintaining high living standards and professional as personal self-realization, avoiding a " career setbacks " and many more. agree to what makes these countries more attractive working and living locations. In some cases much - - higher ( net ) income academics discussed (even after adjusting for differences in purchasing power ), which is mainly Recently also be manifest outside of academic life. In general, also the precarious situation on the German labor market is seen as a further reason for emigration. Not only doctors, engineers and scientists have significantly better career and income-related opportunities and life prospects abroad, but also the social sciences and the humanities as " problem children of the labor market ", as non-technical in the current labor market in Germany employable to be undesirable or even quasi- be regarded as superfluous. In addition, many countries are targeted Anwerbeaktionen in Germany for certain graduates by, eg the UK for social workers and social workers.