Brain-drain, or brain on the lease?

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot

April 09, 2007  

For all the talk about the "brain drain", one stunning fact is missing – the economy. Against this talk, the Bank of Ghana reported recently a capital inflow of some $5.78 billion “from private inward transfers … for January – December 2006.”

Without a doubt, a good chunk of this inflow must have come from the “brain drain;” from Ghanaians in the Diaspora.  It came in amounts through Bank receipts, not counting that which came through unofficial channels from the same source to individuals in Ghana.

This is a windfall attributable to Ghanaians laboring abroad, many from the “brain drain” class and others who are not that fortunate to be so classified.  Nevertheless, both classes left Ghana as economic exiles, whether by muscle or brain.

It is from this windfall that Ghana gets the pleasant soft power for its exchange reserves, ensuring a level of macroeconomic stability and investments in the country.

In other words, this is a private reward that Ghana has not labored for but collects daily and annually.

Instead of seeing the good in the windfall, some rabble-rousers, academics, and politicians especially, have come to observe nothing of this bonanza other than to describe it” as negatively impacting our efforts at nation-building.

The complaint goes as follows:  Ghana invests heavily in education only to see its efforts harvested elsewhere, hence the impasse in our developmental efforts.

The answer, therefore, would be to reduce the outflow of the “brain drain.”

But then comes this sudden windfall of $5.78 billion from abroad.  And I suggest that it is time to review this notion of “brain drain.”

The vast number of citizens that would leave our shores for foreign countries are not from the elite and the wealthy.  They are mostly simple folks who leave as economic exiles because of fewer or no job opportunities at home.  Most of them are the surplus labor that our economy could not carry. 

The country, in a way, has failed these economic exiles.  But while in economic exile, they collectively return the most for the national economy.  The monies they send feed and support many, including students at universities.

 Of the approximately 7000 students who graduate yearly from our universities, far less than two percent of this number migrate overseas.  These are the “brain drain” types that the nation does spend money on.  They, according to some, are now responsible for the damage to our development.

Ironically, the 98% (of the 7000 students) who are not part of the “brain drain”  are not asked to account for their productivity.  Shouldn’t we expect something from them too other than attributing our penury state to those who left for overseas?

We know what is coming from overseas.  Kwesi Konadu, writing for Ghanadot, observed that these remittances have an impact on the general economy and do “help stabilize the local currency as well as make it more valuable.”

The president, Mr. J. A. Kufuor, as much as he might have wished that Ghanaians stayed home, is still grateful for their contributions from abroad.  He understands what other politicians are not willing to appreciate.

The so-called “brain drain” is a parable of the human condition. It is here now for the same reasons that it was in the past.  People for generations have moved to greener pastures. Some call it the PULL of the "greener pasture" syndrome.

Speaking on the subject recently, Dr. George Ayittey said that while the “greener pasture” PULL may be real, there are also PUSH factors that make the experience more virulent.

"The PUSH factors – political instability, repressive intellectual environment, human rights violations, fear, lack of security, deteriorating economic conditions, the collapse of infrastructure, etc.  Because our people can't turn off these PUSH factors, they put all the blame on the external PULL factors," he said.

One example of the PUSH factors at work, Dr. Ayittey said, was in 1981 – 1983, during the “lunatic period of the Rawlings revolution,” when 1 million Ghanaians, mostly unskilled or low-skilled individuals, fled to Nigeria.

For many, the choice to go abroad goes beyond the individual's control.

While there is much to admire about the patriot, the man who stayed behind and held the fort while all left, there ought to be a place of honor for those who went away but were responsible enough to remember and support the folks they left back home.

The staggering sum of $5.78 billion received by Ghana last year must at least generate some gratitude for those who left the country to labor overseas.  The sum is huge, It goes to benefit Ghana.  And it is a bonus; like a gift that keeps giving, year after year.  

If correct, this sum is in the region of the Gross National Product (GNP) of many countries in Africa, including Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Zambia, and others for the year 2005, according to World Bank figures.

 And while some may raise the “brain drain” issue as a matter of moral concern, there is always the knowledge that being able to fully feed the family you left behind, is a better ethical posture than remaining and letting the same family go hungry and deprived.

To be precise, the worry of “brain drain” is not placed on the average guy working as a janitor overseas. It is all about the trained doctors and professionals” that left.

Should we then deprive our budding doctors and professionals of the right to migrate?  Walls have been built in other societies to keep people in. But eventually, the walls collapse. 

Presumably, we may not be able to keep all our doctors at home.  The sad part is not in their going away. It is in the reasons for which they left.

 Professionals trained in our schools and colleges, at government expense, leave for opportunities that are not available in-country. These are highly-strung, professionally-minded, and intelligent men.  They have reasons for leaving.  Rather than worry about the departures, we must think about how to bring them back.

Needless to say, these professionals start paying, in kind, towards the education expenses with the remittances they send.  The total should be enough to underwrite the sums spent to educate them.

 Those who leave after expensive training in our institutions do not lose the abilities they acquired.  As they deploy their abilities overseas for rewards, they also acquire more knowledge and experience that otherwise could not have been obtained at home.

The Ghana government, if serious, can come out with a policy that requires institutions that employs Ghanaian trained scholars and professional to pay some remuneration to cover the training of these folks.  It could claim on moral grounds.  The outcome, however, could be that fewer Ghanaians would be employed by overseas agencies, hurting the “inward transfers” that Ghana is accustomed to. 

However, the Ghana government can do better.  there is still an aspect of the “brain-drain” situation that is not exploited. What will be needed is a paradigm shift from “brain drain” to a concept of “brain on lease.”  This would mean a government project to encourage seasoned citizen professionals in the Diaspora to return home. 

Under the “brain-on lease” project, a professional of international repute, with the right support of the government, can be attracted to home,  A professional like a doctor can come home to establish a practice with a government grant.  The grant will not be free. It will be paid back for others to use.

The “brain-on-lease” project has already proven workable worldwide.  There are instances in India, China, and others, when native doctors in the Diaspora have moved back home to set up practices that still attract patients from abroad, including even their old clients.

To tackle the  PUSH factor for the general economic exile, the government can only do one thing; improve job opportunities at home. Seeking all in the Diaspora to return will be socially and economically more costly than bringing the “brain drain” itself back home since the vast majority in the Diaspora are non-elite and non-professional. 

The vast majority in the Diaspora is not the “brain drain.”  They are the same humble folks whom last year sent most of the $5.78 billion largesse, higher than “…the highest export revenue ever achieved by the cocoa sub-sector of the Ghanaian economy" that same period.

So, for the sake of levity, we must learn that  “brain or brawn on a lease,” all these folks abroad contribute more to the economy than some of the vaunted sectors of our entire economy.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Washington, DC, April 9, 2007.

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