Brain Drain

The world is witnessing the fact that more and more people with specialized skills and experience are moving to rich countries, causing

controversial opinions. Some people think the rich countries are stealing from the poor countries. Some believe it is just a part of natural movement of workers around the world.

The latter is totally right because those workers have their rights to searching for better opportunities in terms of income generation and

personal development. They can be paid more with better accommodation and provided with sufficient conditions to spread their wings. In Vietnam, my home country, the 1980s was seeing influxes of people moving to western countries for business. Most of them are successful, giving a "good" example to others.

To some extent, the movement causes a great deal of consequences on the poor countries such as the shortage of skilled workers and loss of surplus created by these ones, etc. Nonetheless, damn should not be put on the rich countries for a so-called "brain drain". What can be done should be to make joint agreements between the rich and poor countries on, for example, short-term exchange of workers or another similar kind. The rich countries, therefore, are required to take measures to encourage workers hired to come back and help their own countries. This is really happening. Take international scholarships as a typical example. Many academic institutions have requirements for applicants on purpose, duration and commitment of coming back and serving their countries when finishing the courses.

It is obvious that these measures cannot address the root of the issue; however, something like that should be put into deep consideration and

actions must be taken to improve the situation.