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Rescuing Migrants Crossing the Mediterranean Sea

Rescuing Migrants Crossing the Mediterranean Sea
For thousands of years, the Mediterranean Sea has been a giver of life to those who settle near its shores. Today, the body of water is seen as a gateway to a better life for many migrants fleeing violence and poverty. But their journey does not end at the first sight of Mediterranean. It is estimated by The Mediterranean Situation, an organization which monitors migrant activity in the Mediterranean, that over 16,000 migrants have died or gone missing crossing the Mediterranean Sea between 2018 and 2014.

Migrants Crossing the Mediterranean Sea

Small overcrowded boats are often used by thugs and smugglers who charge over a thousand dollars per person for abusive transportation from Africa to Europe. These boats, piloted by unskilled captains, are not built for open water travel or to withstand the ever-changing weather of the Mediterranean Sea. This is why countries most affected by the smuggling activities are prioritizing the rescue of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

Rescuing migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea is no easy task — especially if your nation is split by a power vacuum caused by a civil war. Libya is a popular starting point for many migrants who plan to cross over the sea to Italy. Aside from being geographically close to Italy, the Libyan government and its navy are underfunded and trained. This status makes it difficult to thoroughly patrol the north African nation’s coastline.

Italy has taken the brunt of migrants crossing the Mediterranean with nearly 120,000 migrants arriving to its borders in 2017, and almost 190,000 in 2016. The migrant crisis was one of the most important issues during the recent Italian election, which helped to bring a coalition government of two eurosceptic parties to power.

Governments and Charities

Rescuing migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea is still important to Italy; in fact, $52 million has been pledged to increase Libya’s capacity to combat human smuggling through 2020.

State governments are not the only actors attempting to rescue migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Charities, such as the Spanish Proactiva Open Arms, patrol the Mediterranean Sea searching for migrants in need of rescue. Indeed, Proactiva Open Arms’ mission in the  Mediterranean has saved over 26,000 lives. Due to the organization’s claims that migrants undergo human-rights abuses when returned to Libya, Proactiva Open Arms often brings rescued migrants to shore in Europe.

According to international maritime law, all vessels, private or otherwise, must rescue those in need. The vessel’s origin does not mean that the rescued people are now the responsibility of its national origin; but where the rescued people are put ashore does. This has put Proactiva Open Arms in conflict with the Italian government.

Rescue Efforts and Proactiva Open Arms

When Proactiva Open Arms volunteers and their boat brought migrants to Italy in April 2017, the volunteers were arrested and their boat impounded. The Italian government sought to press charges against the volunteers for bringing the migrants to Italy and not back to Libya, but a Sicilian judge disagreed. The judge agreed with the Proactiva Open Arms volunteers who claimed that Lyiba does not have the proper resources to help the migrants and that they would face abuse as a consequence.

Rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean is a messy business. Countries such as Italy do not want to see people die at sea at the hands of neglectful smugglers, but they also have trouble dealing with the influx of migrants at home. Charities want to help people who are taken advantage of and help them to a better life; but oftentimes these organizations are not always supported. This difficult task does not seem to let up any time soon, and could possibly get worse.

A combined effort is needed to protect people. More should be done to lessen the need for people to flee from their homes, and governments need to step up to protect the human rights of those in need — especially to save helpless children at sea.

– Nick DeMarco
Photo: Flickr

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Top 10 Facts About Poverty in Beijing

Poverty in Beijing
Where media centers around the progressive, global standpoints, over 43 million people who survive on less than 2,300 yuan ($350 a year), bustle their way through the busy streets of China. This eye-opening issue of poverty is especially troublesome (and prevalent) in the city of Beijing, and is not alone on the list of unsettling facts about poverty within the city. Unfortunately, poverty in Beijing is a fact of life for many residents.

10 Facts About Poverty in Beijing

  1. Five hundred million people — 40 percent of the population in China — get by on less than $5.50 a day. This is the cost of a single specialty coffee in many cities, including Beijing which is one of the more expensive cities in China.
  2. Premier Li Keqiang wishes to move 100 million rural residents into the cities by 2020. He claims that “urban life brings higher standards of living” and it “increases domestic consumption to rebalance China’s export-reliant economy.” Though the government did not want these residents to move into major cities such as Beijing, subsequent influx was difficult to control.
  3. The government of Beijing disliked this movement and capped its population, along with destroying entire city blocks in order to remove current migrants and other vulnerable people. Beijing is attempting to push these people to smaller cities like Liaocheng, Zhengzhou and Ankang.
  4. About 50 percent of immigrants struggle to find stable jobs in these small cities because of the unfamiliarity and absence of social networks. These people are incentivized to move based on the promises of expenses — such as housing — paid by the government.
  5. If land is seized by the government during this movement, owners will only receive a pay of about 5 to 10 percent of the land’s actual value, if any money at all. This tends to happen often, due to the limited property rights of the villagers.
  6. China’s government has spent the majority of its money on infrastructure, in order to incentivize voluntary moves of residents to Beijing rather than forcing constituents from their homes. However, this plan may drive China further into debt, rather than helping its economy in the country as a whole.
  7. Beijing’s government has a more committed approach to fighting poverty than Hong Kong. The leadership wishes to put an end to the extreme hardship by 2020 — a key fact about poverty in Beijing.
  8. Beijing adjusts its poverty line for inflation each year. As of 2017, 43 million of the 1.3 billion fell below the line. Beijing’s poverty line rests at 2,300 yuan ($350 a year), but the World Bank’s global standards for extreme poverty is set at $700 a year.
  9. China has been in the lead for the world’s poverty-reduction efforts for four decades. The population pulled over 700 million people out of poverty so far. This is great news, but the world should continue its optimism with caution — China is at risk of its efforts becoming lost due to corruption of poverty alleviation funds.
  10. China allocated over 140 billion yuan ($20.5 billion) toward poverty alleviation in 2017 alone. Beijing uses this money to develop industries (such as tourism and e-commerce), bring more education and occupational training to children and develop public health services in poor areas.

Strong Momentum

Though the city clearly has a few more hurdles to jump in the race to alleviate poverty by 2020, the key facts about poverty in Beijing prove that the city is well on its way to reaching its goals.

Through migration, dedication and funding, the government of Beijing has proved its commitment to helping those struggling to get back on their feet and find stable jobs in the ever-growing economy.

– Raven Patzke 

Photo: Flickr

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What is the Current State of Poverty in Haiti?

What is the Current State of Poverty in Haiti?

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the most poverty-stricken countries in the developing world. Despite this, the Trump Administration is abruptly ending the Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. The humanitarian program allowed about 59,000 Haitians to live and work in the U.S. since the 2010 earthquake which killed 150,000 people.

Haitians will be expected to leave the U.S. by July 2019 or face deportation. This is devastating news for Haitians who earn money in the U.S. to send to their families and for those receiving an education.

Poverty in Haiti

According to the World Bank, life expectancy for Haitians is only 57 years. Less than half of the population is literate and only about one child in five of secondary-school age actually attends secondary school.

Health conditions are poor and about one-fourth of the population has access to safe water. The population continues to grow at a high rate, estimated at almost 200,000 people per year, with the overwhelming majority living in extreme poverty.

Key factors of poverty in Haiti include political instability, inadequate growth in private investment, underinvestment in human capital, and poverty traps including environmental degradation, crime, systematic human rights violations, and outward migration.

Steps to be taken

  1. Strengthen essential public sector institutions, improve coordination and consultation within government, and re-establish and consolidate political stability.
  2. Strengthen macroeconomic stability and reduce distortions in order to encourage private sector investment and increase productivity.
  3. Improve the quality of government spending, invest in the provision of basic human needs, and raise the level of human capital.
  4. Ration the assistance provided by external donors.

There is clearly a lot of work to be done, but instead of abandoning Haitians when they need help the most, the U.S. needs to directly help with overturning their situation of dire poverty.

– Julia Lee

Photo: Flickr

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What is the Difference Between an Immigrant and a Refugee?

Difference Between an Immigrant and a RefugeeWhat is the difference between an immigrant and a refugee? The terms migrant and refugee are often used interchangeably despite the fact that there are definitive differences between the two.

A migrant is a person who consciously makes a choice to leave their homeland and seek a better life in another state. These individuals or families can take the time to learn about the country to which they intend on relocating and prepare themselves as much as possible for the journey. While the process varies from country to country, it usually involves screening, pre-departure training, and obtaining work permits. The process can take months, if not years, and migration has become more common in the last two centuries.

According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee is a person who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”

This definition falls under international law, and therefore a refugee that arrives on foreign soil looking for safety and claiming refugee status cannot be deported immediately. Their case will be reviewed before there is a chance they are sent back their homeland, as it must be considered whether their safety is in jeopardy. This is a United Nations convention that was ratified by 144 countries.

Not all migrants are refugees, but sometimes refugees can fall under the category of a migrant. Knowing the difference between an immigrant and a refugee is especially important for international law and domestic law. Immigration policies and requirements typically only apply to the country that established them. Basically, they are different from country to country and are categorized under domestic law. For example, the application process for migrating into the United States is a different application process than applying to Japan.

However, a refugee is protected by international law, therefore, while legal documentation can be lacking, countries have an obligation to abide by these laws. Even the countries that didn’t ratify the convention are still expected to respect it because it falls under the protection of basic human rights.

There are still similarities between the two, which is why people might confuse them. In both cases, each party will have to either assimilate or find some way to adapt to life in a new country. They will face a shock in culture, the workforce and language. Entering a new country, whether by choice or due to persecution, will always be a frightening process.

Either way, despite the difference between an immigrant and a refugee, both groups deserve a chance at feeling a sense of security within their lives.

– Caysi Simpson

Photo: Flickr

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Migration and Poverty: An Overview

Migration and PovertyThe relationship between migration and poverty may seem a little far fetched. From a general perspective, the two ideas seem disparate. An immigration/emigration officer for deals with people moving from one country to another (sometimes across entire continents). Alternately, poverty (and the alleviation thereof) deals with providing food, water and shelter. However, the two are not just intertwined; poverty is often the causative agent for migration.

The history of human migration and poverty starts at the very dawn of humankind, when our ancestors have still lived in Africa. Back then, early humans did not have the technologies that we have today, such as a writing system or mathematics.

Why is this important? It’s important because back then, human tribes already knew (at some primitive level at least) that in order to find a location with better resources, they needed to move to somewhere else. Consequently, humans have spread (and adapted) to all corners of the planet.

Even today, people generally migrate in order to have better access to resources, be they food or work opportunities. For people living in poverty, such as migrants from Ireland during the potato crisis, it was food. For people who are not direly poor, such as academic migrants, they migrate in order to find academic or employment resources.

But then, one can ask: does migration benefit everyone? Surely, once all the land has been populated and with the academic job market being ferocious, there should be no migration? Well, unfortunately, the topic is infinitely more complex than that.

Thousands of years ago, the only useful resource was food. Nowadays, “wealth” is a complex term that encapsulates a variety of resources: food, money, familial relationships, job prospects, culture and so on.

Some people leave countries because they don’t like their culture, (Switzerland was once described as a prison) because of familial relationships, (U.S. Americans moving across the country to be with family) or for job prospects (Poles moving to the U.K.). Because these migrations have been going on for literally thousands of years, we now live in a world where everyone has traces of multiple ethnicities.

Immigration and emigration has provided individuals with the ability to gain important skills and responsibilities in different communities. Additionally, population movement can help thousands find safer homes. Consequently, mindlessly stopping migration from happening can prevent these individuals from not only rising up in life, but also from achieving basic safety and survival. In fact, MarketWatch recently posted an article explaining why the U.S. still needs immigrants.

This is why migration and poverty are connected closely to one another. Foreign policy should definitely consider this relationship when discussing poverty reduction. The problem of migration cannot be halted by scribbling a few laws in place. However, with the alleviation of poverty, fewer people will find the need to emigrate for reasons of survival and resource necessity.

– Michal Burgunder

Photo: Flickr

Accessible Housing for Migrants in India

Accessible Housing for Migrants in IndiaIndia’s urbanization rate is rising, and with it comes an influx of migrant workers. In the last 20 years, there has been a 73 percent increase in India’s urban population, with a whopping 377.1 million residents living in urban centers in 2011 alone. Though more recent migration data has yet to be released, it is still significant to note that between 2007 and 2008, urban areas experienced a 35 percent migration rate – referring to the proportion of migrants in the population – meaning that over one third of India’s urban population was temporary. Migrants travel to urban centers primarily for two reasons: work and marriage, both of which are issues that are split along gender lines. About 70 percent of all internal female migrants travel for marriage and 56 percent of all male migrants travel for employment.

This special aspect about migrants – their temporary status – has led them to be one of the most underserved groups in the urban population. Their inherently transient nature has allowed them to be taken advantage of in multiple markets – the housing market in particular, as housing options are limited due to their incapacity to purchase homes. Such limitations ensure that these migrants are especially susceptible to exploitation, as they are consistently and completely dependent upon rental options.

Consequently, the issue of housing for migrants in India is increasingly significant, especially considering that a full 27.6 percent of urban residents were living in rental homes in 2011. Much of these rental accommodations manifest themselves in the form of slums, due to the necessity to quickly address the population influxes. As a result, 68 million Indians lived in slums in 2011, due to the inability to properly and swiftly accommodate the massive population fluctuations and due to a lack of options. If slums are the only available housing, a migrant often has no real choice – they must choose between a slum and the street.

In an effort to address this housing shortage, Aarusha Homes entered the scene in 2007. Aarusha operates low-cost, high-quality hostels in four different cities in India. The hostels provide food, security, utilities and cleanliness, with some locations being single-gender and some being split. In the effort to be low-cost, Aarusha’s prices fluctuate depending on the property locations and the demographics of its renters. Income and “sharing level” (how many individuals live within an apartment) are both taken into account when determining price. Further, payments occur in advance of stay in order to sustain a pay-as-you-go model that is supportive to the transitory status of migrants. Individuals can pay for their specific housing and time needs rather than for a blanket number of months, ensuring that migrants do not have to worry about obtaining subleases or paying for unused housing, if and when their time within the given city is finished.

As of now, Aarusha maintains 21 of these facilities and are projected to impact over 87,000 lives within the next five years. If Aarusha has been able to drastically impact the issue of housing for migrants in India in their short 10-year existence – simply by diversifying the housing options available to migrants – there is surely much hope for what other improvements can be made in the future.

– Kailee Nardi

Photo: Flickr

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The Fallacy of the Brain Drain in India

Brain Drain in IndiaThere is a common joke in Silicon Valley that the most spoken languages are Hindi and Telugu. Like many common jokes, this one reveals a staggering truth: nearly 60 percent of the engineers in Silicon Valley are of Indian origin. Over the past two decades, high-skilled migration has brought dramatic innovations to the American Information Technology (IT) sector, while leading to what some commentators have called the brain drain in India and other developing countries.

In 1990, as the American IT sector began to boom, Congress passed the H-1B program, granting visas to thousands of foreign nationals in “specialty occupations.”

A recent article published in India’s The Quint claims, “[the brain drain in India] adversely affects the quality and quantity of human capital formation, which is the bedrock of modern economic development.”

Although this is a common contention, it is far from correct.

A recent study published by the Center for Global Development suggests, “better-paid jobs [in the U.S.] incentivize [Indian] students to choose certain majors and supply a highly-educated workforce to Indian firms.” Thus, at the same time as thousands of high-skilled Indians emigrate to the U.S. every year, thousands more acquire STEM degrees in India and never leave. As for those that do find higher-paying jobs abroad, many eventually return to India when their visas expire.

Because of this, between 1998 and 2012, the Indian IT sector grew from 1.2 percent of GDP to over 7.5 percent. By the mid-2000s, India had surpassed the U.S. as the largest exporter of software.

Far from producing a brain drain in India, Gaurav Khanna and Nicolas Morales’ study finds that the American H-1B program not only correlated with the birth of India’s IT sector but also caused a “reverse brain drain” in India.

While some have wrongly criticized the H-1B program for hurting developing economies, others have argued that free movement of labor has imposed downward pressure on American workers’ wages.

A recent article in the Huffington Post suggests that H-1B visas only benefit American tech companies that “want to hire cheap, immobile labor—i.e. foreign workers.”

Although high-skilled migration has certainly led to wage stagnation for certain occupations in the U.S., Khanna and Morales find that the influx of Indian workers has simultaneously motivated many American students to attain even more specialized degrees that lead to even higher paying jobs.

In the end, the new study released by the Center for Global development offers much-needed clarity about the complicated subject of labor migration. Overall, it finds that high-skilled migration is something to be encouraged rather than banned. Indeed, the free movement skilled labor has been proven to bring mutual benefits to both the American and Indian economies.

– Nathaniel Sher

Photo: Google

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Poverty in Oman: Past, Present, and Future

poverty in oman

Oman is a country in the Arabian Peninsula bordering Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates, which places it in the southeastern coast of the region. The coastal regions of the country benefit from fertile soil and a beautiful landscape with impressive mountains. Despite the country’s strong agriculture and its oil, it has recently faced an economic downturn following its big investments in social welfare, causing oil prices to drop and the budget to decrease.

Economic Crisis

The aforementioned economic downturn of the country was due to a protest during the Arab Spring in 2011. The citizens demanded more employment opportunities, economic benefits, and a crackdown on the government’s corruption, which is an absolute monarchy led by the Sultan of Oman. While the government did respond to the protest by providing social welfare benefits, the result was an unmanageable budget that contributed to the poverty in Oman. The biggest concern on the economy of Oman is related to the shifting prices of oil, as the country is highly dependent on oil to generate revenue. In fact, oil can account for somewhere between 68% and 85% of the country’s entire revenue generated in a year. This is why Oman suffered a budget deficit of $13.8 billion in the year 2016, the same year global oil prices dropped.

Wages and Migrant Inequity

While the statistics don’t indicate a high rate of the country’s nationals being under the poverty line, poverty in Oman primarily affects migrant workers. Omani nationals benefit from a minimum wage at $592 a month in addition to a $263 allowance. Migrant workers in Oman do not have access to these benefits and are compensated with low wages.

Many countries in the Middle East, including Oman, employ female migrants to work in households. They are tasked with taking care of the children, cooking, and doing daily chores. Oman has at least 130,000 of these female migrant workers, and they face poor working conditions. This includes lower wages than initially promised, excessively long working hours and, according to interviews with about 59 of the workers, there are even cases of physical and sexual abuse from employers.

A Plan Forward

The state is at risk of major deficits in its budget in a case where oil prices drop, as was the case in the year 2016. To solve this, the sultan has been seeking alternative ways for generating revenue in order to reduce the risk of another economic downturn. The country has already made progress by making a development plan in 2016 to decrease its oil dependency. The plan seeks to open doors in industrialization and privatization, diversifying its sources of revenue.

According to the CIA, “The key components of the government’s diversification strategy are tourism, shipping and logistics, mining, manufacturing, and aquaculture.” Despite Omani nationals struggling to find employment opportunities due to migrant workers’ lower wages in earlier years, the country has seen an increasing number of citizens entering the job market recently. To highlight some of the progress Oman has made in previous years, its tourism industry has been opening up and contributing to the country’s GDP. 32 new hotels opened in 2018 to add over 3000 rooms to accommodate tourists, which put the country at an expected tourism growth rate of about 13% between 2018 and 2019.

COVID-19 Influence

Reports in recent months have shown a spike in Covid-19 cases among migrant workers in the Arabian Gulf countries, including Oman. Living conditions for these workers tend to be cramped and they lack access to necessary equipment and care for protection against the virus. Back in April, 16 NGOs sent letters to the gulf countries with recommendations to protect migrant workers amidst the pandemic. These recommendations include providing equal testing, medical access and continued wages for workers no longer able to work in these conditions.

While Oman has yet to respond to the letters, there has been a decline in Covid-19 daily cases over the past week. It peaked at an estimated 2164 new cases on July 13th but has been declining. In comparison, on July 15th, there were an estimated 1157 new cases.

Despite facing an economic downturn in 2016, the country has made strategic progress by diversifying its sources of revenue and decreasing its dependency on oil. These changes can greatly alleviate poverty in Oman.

– Fahad Saad
Photo: Flickr

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Ten Facts About Kiribati Refugees

Kiribati Refugees
Climate change will drive migration on a massive scale in the coming years. Estimates of people fleeing natural disasters range from 25 million to 1 billion. The small island nation of Kiribati in the Pacific will be extinct by 2100. The government is trying to help the Kiribati refugees migrate with dignity, but their legal status is still in limbo.

    1. Most of the land of the Kiribati islands is less than two meters above sea level. It is therefore very vulnerable to rising sea levels due to climate change. Its residents may have to be the first climate change refugees.
    2. In 1999, two islands disappeared underwater. The nation is made up of 33 small islands, whose land is being swallowed by the ocean at a rate of almost 4 millimeters a year. According to the U.N., the entire nation will be submerged by 2100.
    3. Even before this drastic event occurs, changes in weather patterns are likely to produce Kiribati refugees. Droughts are becoming more severe, whilst rainfall is increasing, causing flooding. The oceans are acidifying, disturbing the delicate balance of coral reefs, whose marine ecosystems are the source of many people’s livelihoods.
    4. Freshwater supply is also problematic, as saltwater from high ocean tides is polluting wells and prolonged droughts are pushing water supplies to their limits. Many residents of South Tarawa, the island housing half of the country’s 100,000 people, are now completely reliant on rainwater.
  1. In 2003, the Kiribati government cooperated with the World Bank in the $17.7million Kiribati Adaptation Program. They built coastal sea walls, planted mangroves on the shores, developed water-management plans and invested in rainwater harvesting infrastructure, to postpone the effects of the rising ocean. The project has managed to protect one of 710 miles of Kiribati’s coastline.
  2. The former president, Anote Tong, started the “Migration with Dignity” program to ensure the Kiribati refugees will move to other states with dignity. The government has increased the level of qualifications available to citizens to those of Australia and New Zealand so that they are employable.
  3. The former president also bought 6,000 acres of land in Fiji, an island nation more than 1,000 miles away. This will act as a refuge for any Kiribati residents who will need to relocate.
  4. A Kiribati citizen applied for asylum in New Zealand in 2011. Four years later he was rejected and deported back to his sinking homeland.
  5. The 1951 Refugee Convention defines refugees as those “fleeing persecution at home.” As such, the Kiribati refugees are not protected by international law. “The truth is no one agency in the system because no one could have imagined this situation 60 years ago,” said José Riera, a senior advisor to the U.N. High Commission for Refugees.
  6. The Paris Agreement signed this past April does little to help climate change refugees. It didn’t resolve the issue of their legal status or mandate their protection.

It is hopeful that with the help of the government and international aid, each refugee, resident and the overall island will be preserved.

Eliza Gkritsi

Photo: Flickr

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Business and Government Leaders Fight Global Brain Drain

Brain Drain
Brain drain is a rampant epidemic detrimentally impacting developing nations across the earth. As a result, businesses and political figures are making fantastic efforts to reverse brain drains on both a national and global level.

What is Brain Drain and Why is it Happening?

According to Merriam-Webster, brain drain is defined as, “a situation in which many educated or professional people leave a particular place or profession and move to another one that gives them better pay or living conditions.”

The term brain drain was first coined around the 1960s when Great Britain experienced a high percentage of British scientists and intellectuals leaving the country to find better careers in the U.S.

Since then, many other countries such as Greece, Lithuania and a number of African nations have experienced brain drain at an alarming rate.

The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine reports that brain drain stems from a wide range of economic, social and political conditions. Most of these conditions are observed in developing countries where the careers of citizens are stifled from issues such as poverty, political instability and lack of technology.

These conditions make developed countries more attractive to those with a degree or a specialized skill. Countries such as the U.S., Canada and the U.K. have been gaining a significant amount of doctors and nurses from abroad.

Migration Abroad

In 2006, the U.S. received roughly 213,331 doctors and 99,456 nurses from abroad. Research from the WHO estimated that brain drain resulted in a global shortage of 4.3 million healthcare workers. Countries experiencing brain drain lose educated working-class employees by anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of workers.

In just 2011 alone, Lithuania reported 54,000 migrating to find work in the U.K. The continent of Africa loses one in nine university graduates to Western nations. In addition, Greece estimated that 160,000 to 180,000 college graduates have left the country for better opportunities.

Though developed countries can benefit from receiving these educated migrants, the sheer amount of incoming, educated people can overwhelmingly disadvantage various sectors within developing countries.

However, there is hope to reverse brain drain as seen from the efforts of nations such as Lithuania, the UAE and many African countries.

Lithuania

Business leaders and government officials in Lithuania are combating brain drain through a series of university mergers. University mergers are when multiple universities unify in order to foster stronger university brands. The plan is that these university mergers will attract current citizens and international students to study in Lithuania.

Marius Skuodis, a former citizen of Lithuania, has returned to his country because of the new opportunities provided within the university mergers. He plans on pursuing his PhD at Vilnius University, despite having to accept a lower salary.

Skuodis is quoted saying that, “Lithuania offered me career opportunities I could not expect in the UK.”

UAE

The UAE has also made gallant strides in turning brain drain into a brain gain. The UAE is a nation that suffered from brain drain as well as high levels of violence for numerous years.

Recently, businesses have made tremendous efforts in the UAE to improve the quality of life for workers and residents. These efforts have turned the UAE into a thriving nation with one of the highest standards of living for citizens in the world.

Africa

In Africa, reports indicate that brain drain has slowed substantially within the continent. A study in 2014 from South Africa’s Adcorp, stated that 359,000 highly skilled South African workers had returned to work in their countries of origin.

Economists have noted that this accomplishment was possible due to the policies that governments and businesses have put in place in order to encourage workers to come back home.

Finding a solution to reducing brain drain is no easy feat, as it requires both businesses and governments to coincide with one another to tackle the issue at hand. Businesses and corporate leaders need to implement solutions to create more job opportunities with quality benefits for those with desired skills.

Governments need to strive for policy changes that encourage workers to return to their countries. However, if governments and businesses can work together to make substantial legislation changes, many nations may follow suit and reverse their brain drain into a brain gain.

– Shannon Warren

Photo: Flickr