Caribbean to commission brain drain study
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) – The Caribbean Community will facilitate a study to examine the impact of an economic migration of the region’s best educated workers to wealthier nations, an official with the 15-nation bloc said yesterday.
The study, to be completed by researchers at the University of the West Indies, will document an ongoing pattern of “brain drain” that has resulted in middle-class workers decamping to higher-paying jobs in the United States, Europe, and Canada, according to Barbadian Education Minister Anthony Wood.
Wood, who made the comments after a meeting of Caricom ministers, said the exodus of skilled professionals can prove particularly damaging in professions such as education but likely impedes regional development in a variety of ways.
A recent study by the International Monetary Fund estimated that the Caribbean was losing up to 40 per cent of its most skilled professionals – with many of those leaving high-skilled jobs in education, medicine, and law.