Skill drain from ASEAN countries: can sending countries afford?

Purpose Migration of skilled workers to other countries remains a highly contentious issue. Skill drain does not take place based on skill surplus and deficient equation. Skilled migrants can make their choice to migrate on their own with minimal control of the Government. This paper aims to argue t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of development issues 2018-07, Vol.17 (2), p.205-219
Main Author: Ullah, AKM Ahsan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affordable housing
Brain drain
Education
Employment in foreign countries
Engineers
Human capital
Migrants
Migration
Nurses
Physicians
Professionals
Religious persecution
Remittances
Research methodology
Scholarship
Skilled workers
Skills
Study abroad
Wage differential
Wages & salaries
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Summary:Purpose Migration of skilled workers to other countries remains a highly contentious issue. Skill drain does not take place based on skill surplus and deficient equation. Skilled migrants can make their choice to migrate on their own with minimal control of the Government. This paper aims to argue that sending countries lose skill which cannot be offset or justified by the remittances inflow. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a research conducted on skill migration from the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. In this study, skilled migrants are engineers, medical doctors, nurses and academics. The author interviewed 12 engineers (four from the Philippines; two from Malaysia; four from Singapore and two from Thailand); nine medical doctors (four from the Philippines; three from Singapore, one from Malaysia and one from Thailand); eight nurses (six from the Philippines and two from Thailand); and 14 academics (six from the Philippines; five from Singapore and three from Malaysia) who were working abroad. Findings Skill migration continues to grow because of the growing demand, wage differentials, glorifications of the contribution of remittances to development and failure of the origin countries to retain them. The question remains whether the respective sending country is producing more of them so that they can send after their own demand is met. This paper investigates whether the sending end can afford exporting such skills. Originality/value This is an important contribution to the scholarship.
ISSN:1446-8956
1758-8553
DOI:10.1108/IJDI-12-2017-0210