Some 58 per cent of Bahamians who were educated to a college or university level migrated to the US for work between 1965 and 2000, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) study has revealed, a statistic likely to renew fears that this nation’s economy is being harmed by a `brain drain’ of its best and brightest to foreign jobs.
The study for the IMF, entitled Emigration and Brain Drain: Evidence from the Caribbean, drew on the US Census report from 2000 and other reports, plus its own work, to conclude that between 1970 and 2000, the Bahamas had the 18th highest rate of emigration to OECD-member states from among its nationals who had been educated to tertiary levels. The data will cause concern that the most-highly educated Bahamians, those who have attained college degrees and the best skills, are seeking and finding work outside this nation.
In turn, this negatively affects the Bahamian economy, as it is losing significant numbers of its most productive workers, harming competitiveness.
Brian Nutt, the Bahamas Employers Confederation’s (BeCON) president, told The Tribune that the 58 per cent statistic in the IMF’s report was “a surprisingly high number”.
Although he had not seen the report, Mr Nutt said the impact of the so-called ‘brain drain’ – where countries lose their most productive workers to foreign jobs – on the Bahamas had often been debated.
“This is the first time I’ve heard a percentage put to it,” Mr Nutt said. “It does seem to be quite high.”
The BeCON president added that it would be interesting to break the 58 per cent number derived by the IMF down, to find out why such large numbers of colleged-educated Bahamians apparently stayed away to find work outside this country.
Part of such a work would have to assess whether these Bahamians simply stayed away because they found jobs and careers paths in the US and Canada after completing their studies, or if it was because they were unable to find a job in this nation.
If it was the latter case, Mr Nutt said the reasons for being unable to find a job needed to be explored – whether it was because there was no job in their field due to a lack of economic diversification, or if expatriate work permit holders were holding posts, for instance.
Referring to the IMF study, Mr Nutt said: “I would guess the majority of those are people who left the Bahamas to go to college and never came back. They got a jab while there, and their career path led them to the us.
“It would be interesting to know how many of that number came back, looked for a job and left as opposed to going away and never coming back.”
Mr Nutt also conceded that a lack of economic diversification in the Bahamas, with its reliance on tourism and financial services, might also encourage highly-educated Bahamians to look for work abroad.
The BeCON president used an example the time when he worked for Gladstone Farms, and wet up the only hatchery in the Bahamas, as evidence of how limited the job opportunities were in some professions.
“We do not have a diversified economy. Many people have gone into career paths where there is no job in the Bahamas,” Mr Nutt said. “There may have been an opening in the US and a career path they wanted to follow up, but no job of that type in the Bahamas, so they stayed on.” By contrast, the IMF study said that only 10 per cent of Bahamians educated to secondary school level, and 2 per cent educated to primary school level, had emigrated to the US between 1965-2000. The figures used in the study stripped out all Bahamians who had emigrated to the US before they were aged 16.
The IMF study found that for the same period of time, just over 10 per cent of the Bahamian labour force had emigrated. Bar Haiti, that was the lowest percentage for the Caribbean region.
However, the Bahamas was the country where the highest percentage of its economic migrants – almost 90 per cent – went to the US.
The IMF study, by Prachi Mishra, said: “More than threefourths of migrants from the Bahamas, Belize, Dominican Republic and Haiti reside in the US. Geographical proximity, higher wage differentials and immigration laws in the US’ are the most likely reasons for,, such a bias.”
The Caribbean, with an avevﾕ age rate of 12 per cent, has the highest rate of labour force migration to OECD countries.
The IMF study added: “Total losses due to skilled migration (which includes the emigration loss, externality, effects, and government expenditure on educating the migrants) outweighs the record remittances for the Caribbean region on average, and, for almost all the individual Caribbean countries.”
There was no data on remittances sent home by Bahamians, but the IMF paper drew on data supplied by the United Nations (UN) UNESCO body to show that the Government spent a sum equal to 1.1 per cent of GDP – around $50 million – on educating Bahamian migrants.
It estimated that this, coupled with the emigration loss itself, was equivalent to 4.4 per cent – just over $200 million – of the Bahamian economy’s ‘s GDP.
Source: The Tribune
