‘Brain drain’ refers to the concept of smart, ambitious people migrating somewhere away from their home country in order to find a better life.
One common example of this refers to people from poorer countries in places like Asia moving to places like the US for school and job opportunities. The classic story you might hear is the earnest, ambitious kid who left their home from somewhere in India or China in order to seek a better life in America.
Well let me tell you, the world has changed and especially right now, East West ‘brain drain’ is turning into East West ‘brain gain.’
One of my good friends is from Korea. He went to high school in Seoul and then ended up studying at one of the top universities in the US for his undergraduate degree. Afterwards, he worked in finance in New York and was accepted into Wharton for an MBA earlier this year.
He was really looking forward to attending, but uncertainties around the coronavirus have changed everything. And because of the confusing situation around both student and work visas for international students in the US, he has decided to defer his MBA by a year. He may end up not attending business school at all.
When he told me this story, I started thinking about what could have been. If he ended up going to Wharton, he probably would’ve stayed in the US, gotten a job there, eventually got a green card, bought property, paid taxes, and lived out his life as a high-functioning, productive member of the United States of America.
But now, he’s working in Hong Kong. This is a loss for the US, and a win for Asia.
My friend’s story is emblematic of a broader shift in human capital across the world. People are moving because of the coronavirus, and that changes the makeup of the globe.
There are hundreds of thousands of Asian international students around the world right now in a similar situation to my friend. Several of my previous posts have dealt with Indian, Chinese, and Korean students (the three biggest international student populations for the US) increasingly deciding to not go to the US for education.
The US is expecting a major drop in international student enrolment. This is partly because of the coronavirus, partly because of changing visa regulation and partly because of geo-political tension between the US and China.
It’s a topic very close to me, as I was an international student myself who studied in the US for both high school and college.
Similar changes are happening in other countries. This year, Australian universities have experienced a decline in international student applications from Asian countries. The Australian Department of Home Affairs saw a 46% decline from India and 20% decline from China compared to the previous year.
Countries like the UK and Canada seem to be suffering less, but there’s an existential crisis going through the heads of every international student office at a Western university.
For many Western universities, seeing a decline in international students is like a big retail store seeing a decline in their most profitable customer segment.
But for the international students’ countries of origin, this results in a positive ‘brain gain.’ Tons of Asian students looking to stay closer to home for the foreseeable future could make a huge impact on Asian economies.
I moved from London to New Zealand two months ago, which was never part of my plan.
There are close to 50,000 New Zealanders who have come back to the country since the beginning of the year, and it’s expected that the number will significantly increase depending on the coronavirus.
For a country of 5 Million people, that’s a sizeable chunk and represents close to 10% of the overseas New Zealand population.
This ‘brain gain’ of some of the most internationally minded, ambitious New Zealanders is a hot topic in the country right now.
Little stories like mine and like my Korean friend’s will all add up and reshape the way the world works.
Just like the saying ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,’ I believe that one country’s loss is another country’s gain. And right now, the biggest losses in human capital are in the West and the biggest gains are in the East.
Brain Gain in the Time of Covid