JANUARY 18, 2019

“Brain Drain” has often been a concern for those who study immigration and its impacts. Put simply, brain drain refers to the movement of highly skilled workers and intellectuals, like doctors and scientists, out of a country to the point that it harms the origin country’s productivity. Historically, brain drain could happen as a result of prosecution or discrimination, such as the influx of Jewish scientists from Germany to the US in the early 1900s. In the modern day, however, most brain drain is likely driven by simple economic incentives: scientists can make more money and do better work in some countries versus others.

But how does immigration policy impact brain drain? Maurice Schiff from the Institute for the Study of Labor studied the impact that different types of immigration systems could have on brain drain, and its related concept: ability drain. Specifically, Schiff studied three types of immigration systems: the “point” system, used in pre-2015 Canada; the “vetting” system, used in the US for systems like the H-1B; and the “new point” systems, used in countries like Australia and New Zealand.

Examining the impacts of these different systems, Schiff found that vetting systems, like the US H-1B program, generated larger ability drains and larger brain drains than the points systems, thus creating a more beneficial policy for the host country (the US) than those other systems. However, this also means that countries losing workers, such as India or China, are suffering at a greater rate. Schiff suggests that countries work together to provide a less impactful immigration standard.

Citation: Schiff, M. (2017). Ability drain: size, impact, and comparison with brain drain under alternative immigration policies. Journal of Population Economics, 30, 1337–1354.

移民政策所造成的“人才流失”

研究移民及其影响的学者常常会提到一个词，叫做 “人才流失”。简而言之，人才流失指的是一个国家的高技能工人和知识分子（如医生和科学家）流向外国，以至于损害了该国的生产力。从历史上看，人才流失可能是由于遭受迫害或歧视造成的，例如20世纪初期德国犹太科学家涌入美国。然而，在现代，大多数人才流失的现象很可能就是简单地由经济刺激所驱动的，与其留在本国，这些人才在某些国家可以赚更多钱，发展得更好。

但移民政策如何影响人才流失现象？来自劳动研究所的Maurice Schiff研究了不同类型的移民系统可能对人才流失产生的影响及其相关概念：人才吸收。具体而言，Schiff研究了三种类型的移民系统：2015年之前加拿大使用的 “积分” 系统; 在美国使用的 “审查” 系统; 以及澳大利亚和新西兰等国家使用的 “新积点” 系统。

通过对比这些不同系统的影响，Schiff发现“审查“系统，如美国的H-1B计划，产生了比“积点“系统更大的人才吸收和人才流失现象，从而为美国创造了一个更有利的环境。然而这也意味着部分国家正大量地流失人才，如印度或中国。Schiff建议各国共同努力，提供冲击力较小的移民标准。