TIJUANA The brain drain and flight of human capital of Mexicans who immigrate north is the equivalent of transferring $6 billion annually to the United States, about .5 per cent of that country's GNP, said a leading researcher.
Alejandro Díaz Bautista, a member of Mexico's National Council of Science and Technology and an economics professor at the College of the Northern Border, said that the number of Mexican professionals living abroad in the last few years grew by 153 per cent, from 411,000 to 1.3 million.
This exodus constitutes "a phenomenal economic loss for Mexico" in the last six years, he said.
The investment made developing that capacity is lost, as is the possibility that these professionals' work will contribute to Mexico's development and economic growth, he said.
This migration involves talented people already educated, such as scientists, who move from Mexico to the United States or other developed countries.
Their departure is principally driven by the lack of opportunities, by the search for better salaries, and for greater security and a better standard of life.
"In today's knowledge-based world, it's more valuable to have these minds who can contribute to economic development than to take away the product of a gold mine or a part of a country's oil," Díaz Bautista said.
In the last few years, it's estimated that more than five million Mexicans with an education above high school have decided to move to the United States, which shows that the programs to bring them back home have failed.
Developing countries such as Mexico need a public policy that tries to retain its qualified professionals by offering them better employment options and incentives to those who have left to return home to contribute to their country's economy, he said.
He said that Mexico has generated 8 million professionals in the last few years, and that 900,000 of them are already in the United States. He said that at least 125,000 people with a master's or doctorates have left the country.
Among the Latin American countries, Mexico's suffers the most from this brain drain. He said that loss will have grave consequences for years to come.
Omar.millan@sandiegored.com
