Talent drain

Brain Drain is a redirect to this article. For the music album see Brain Drain (album) .

The talent exodus , even talent fleeing or talent loss , English human capital flight (literally flight of human capital ) or brain drain (literally Intellektabfluss , often in German in the transfer brain drain , brain drain or brain drain used) is the partial migration of human capital ( e.g. scientists and general academics , entrepreneurs , inventors or skilled workers ) of a society or economy . The emigration of specially trained or talented people from a country means economic losses for the giving country, whereas the receiving country benefits from the immigration of talent ( brain gain ).

Many (not all) economic and technological heydays can be traced back to waves of immigration, many declines to emigration, especially of the more talented minds of persecuted minorities . Hence there is some competition around the world for the brightest minds, with considerable disadvantages for those countries that do not have the means to retain their talents and considerable advantages for the other countries and for the individuals concerned.

Historical talent drain

The recurring expulsions of Jews in participating countries have had considerable disadvantages: Among other things, the loss of Jewish bankers may have cost Spain its great power position in the 16th century ; Due to the forced emigration of Jews and opponents of the Nazis after Adolf Hitler's seizure of power, the Holocaust and again after the end of the Second World War, Germany and Austria lost many top-class scientists, artists and entrepreneurs, especially to the USA and Great Britain.

The emigration of Huguenots (persecuted Protestants from France ) to Prussia was disadvantageous for France. With the Huguenots and other groups persecuted in some parts of Europe, a lot of craft knowledge went to Prussia.

During the division of Germany, the emigration of talent from the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany was a problem within Germany. a. many doctors left the GDR before and after the Wall was built in 1961 . This posed an economic problem for the GDR, because the recruitment of new elites (in science , business and politics ) was becoming increasingly difficult, while the West German economy benefited from the well-trained workers from the GDR. This problem occurred in a similar form throughout the former Eastern Bloc .

Talent churn today

In Europe , the intention to create a European educational area (abbreviated EHEA from English European higher education area , " Bologna Process ") and European research area (abbreviated ERA from English European research area ) has triggered a discussion about talent migration. The following current talent migration movements can be identified:

• Within Europe from southern and eastern countries to the richer countries of the EU , especially the blue banana area
• From Europe and Asia (especially China ) to the USA
• From Germany to other countries with better working conditions (see University Framework Act ) or research conditions (see Stem Cell Research , Embryo Protection Act )

According to the DAAD ( German Academic Exchange Service ), around 10,000 students were studying German schooling in the USA in 2005.

The TASD study According to a talent exodus takes trained people of Turkish origin from Germany to Turkey instead.

Recruitment

General

Several countries have launched their own campaigns and networks to ensure that students and researchers return to their home country after the experience they want abroad.

The chronological sequence of emigration and return of skilled workers and academics postulates a "talent cycle" (English brain circulation ), a circulation of people and their knowledge. This circulation makes it possible to bring back a lot of knowledge that is important for the development of the country. Critics of this thesis point out that the knowledge of the individual emigrants in technologically more developed countries can be combined at a much higher level (effects of synergy and emergence ), while this level of combination is no longer given when returning to a less developed country. As a result, the benefit for the less developed countries is significantly lower and the development gap to the more developed countries does not decrease or continues to increase.

Germany

Only one in four skilled workers is currently returning to Germany. According to the German Scholars Organization, the reasons for this are the poor pay and the difficult-to-understand appointment procedure for professorships in Germany, as well as the better supervision of research abroad. In economics, for example, this means that of the 100 most research-intensive German economists under 45 years of age, every second person works outside Germany, as a study from April 2007 showed.

Why German academics emigrate and often do not return to Germany has not yet been empirically investigated. One possible, often-cited reason for staying abroad permanently is that many academics belong to an age group at the time of moving where social and economic living conditions are quickly stabilizing (marriage, starting a family, integrating children into a school system in a different language, purchasing real estate, Investments in foreign currency). These migrants and their children not only find strong new bonds abroad, but often a full home, so that there may be no basis for a desire to return to their country of birth.

On the other hand, academics, including those who already have a family in Germany or are planning to find better conditions for their wishes in certain countries (especially Scandinavian, but also e.g. France and Spain), work, career and family if they are retained high living standards and professional as personal self-realization, avoiding a "career setbacks" and much agree to what these countries makes them more attractive working and living locations. Finally - z. In some cases significantly - higher (net) academic incomes (even after adjusting for differences in purchasing power) are discussed, which manifest themselves above all outside the academic world. In the 2000s, the precarious situation on the German labor market was also seen as a further reason for emigration. Because not only physicians, engineers and natural scientists were offered significantly better professional and income-related opportunities and life prospects abroad, but also social scientists and humanities scholars, who on the labor market in Germany as "problem children of the labor market", as not subject-related, to undesirable or even more or less than were considered superfluous.

In addition, many countries are carrying out targeted recruitment campaigns in Germany for certain graduates, for example Great Britain for social pedagogues and social workers. Conversely, individual federal states encourage the return of highly qualified people to Germany .

See also : Labor Migration # Political Debate

Austria

The “ Network for Researchers ” of the Office of Science & Technology of the Austrian Embassy in the USA serves to recruit emigrated Austrian talent.

Waste of talent

The refused or delayed recognition of qualifications of migrants from their country of origin and the associated ban on practicing the profession they have learned are criticized as "wasting talent" (English brain waste ) . In the country of immigration, the skills of migrants are not used as much as possible. On the part of the immigrant, hopes or expectations remain unfulfilled and a dequalification may result . One speaks of a “ lose-lose situation” for all involved.

See also

• Mobility of the "creative class"
• Care Drain
• Skilled workers shortage
• History of the Germans in the United States
• Migration sociology # Labor migration: brain drain / brain gain

literature

• Dittmar Dahlmann, Reinhold Reith (Ed.): Migration of the elite and knowledge transfer in the 19th and 20th centuries. Klartext, Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-89861-855-7 .
• Heiko Flügel: Mobility, Excellence and Talent Exchange , Cuvillier, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-86955-611-6 (also dissertation at the University of Frankfurt am Main 2010).
• Stefan Remhof: Emigration of academics from Germany: reasons, effects and countermeasures. Tectum, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8288-9686-4 .
• Friedrich Stadler (Ed.): Displaced Reason: Emigration and Exile of Austrian Science 1930–1940. Unchanged new edition, Lit, Münster / Hamburg / Berlin / Vienna / London 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7372-2 (Volume 1) / ISBN 3-8258-7373-0 (Volume 2.1) / ISBN 3-8258-7373-0 (Volume 2.2).
• Friedrich Stadler: Expulsion, transformation and return of the philosophy of science using the example of Rudolf Carnap and Wolfgang Stegmüller. Lit, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-50165-3 .
• Lion Wagner: Critique of the fiction of a transformation from brain drain into brain circulation , Rheinsberg 2016, ISBN 978-3-00-049874-9 .

Web links

• Article in the online manual of the Berlin Institute for Population and Development ( memento from March 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) "From Brain Drain to Brain Circulation"
• Politics overslept the emigration trend ( memento from April 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Migration expert Klaus J. Bade in an interview with tagesschau.de
• Young participants in the Thinkquest competition in Switzerland dealt with the topic
• Battle for the Telepolis brains

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Handelsblatt ( Memento from May 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) accessed December 5, 2008.
2. ^ "Labor market report academics", Federal Employment Agency, 2004.
3. ↑ Past life . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 2006 ( online ).
4. ↑ Urs Güney: “Brain Waste” harms everyone involved , NZZ Campus, from November 19, 2012
5. ↑ ^{a b} Florian Rötzer: Brain Drain and Brain Waste , Telepolis , October 26, 2005
6. ^ Bettina Englmann, Martina Müller: Brain Waste - The Recognition of Foreign Qualifications in Germany , Door to Door Integration Projects, Augsburg 2007
7. ^ Bettina Englmann, Martina Müller, with the assistance of Tanja Gerschewske, Felix König, Dilek Tunay: Brain Waste. The recognition of foreign qualifications in Germany. In: Door to door integration projects gGmbH, development partnership Integra.net. 2007, accessed May 8, 2018 .  P. 18.