Skilled Immigration: The Perspective of Developing Countries

This chapter examines the Bhagwati tax and other issues concerning the impact of out-migration of the skilled. It provides a survey of 40 years of research on skilled out-migration. The chapter cites up-to-date comparative data on the brain drain, as well as case-study evidence that generally supports the view that out-flows of skilled labor are in practice beneficial, rather than harmful, to the source developing countries. However, the fact that examples of excessive brain-drain rates abound reveals the difficulty for source countries to control emigration, whether skilled or unskilled.