Augusto Monterroso was a Honduran author who wrote the shortest short story ever written in any language. In the same book where that story was published, another fictional short story about brain drain appeared. This satirical piece started by saying:
The brain drain phenomenon has always existed, but it seems that nowadays it is beginning to be thought of as a problem. However, it is common knowledge, and sufficiently established by universal experience, that every brain worth anything at all either leaves on its own, or is taken away by someone else, or is sent into exile. In fact the first is the most common, but as soon as a brain comes into being it finds itself in a position to benefit from any one of these three possibilities. (Monterroso 2011)
Now, as Monterroso also says, no one takes our “brains” away, and if it happens is in a very low scale, because our “brains” just leave whenever they can, mostly due to there are unappreciated in Latin America (Monterroso 2011). Sadly that is another truth, one with many factors to analyze, but a truth at last. Behind the story of each brain that was “drained” was one that was misused. This paper underscores some considerations about the “brain drain” situation in Cuba and the United States policy towards this issue. It also provides some background for the better understanding of this phenomenon and its relationship with the developed-undeveloped countries duality.
The phrase “brain drain” was coined in the 1960s, when the United States began to hoard UK doctors. In that case, one developed country took advantages of another; the US emerged from the Second World War in 1944 with 80 percent of the world’s gold reserve in bullions; the UK had been severely hit and deprived of its empire during the course of the war. Today economic and social statistics show that “brain drain deals a double blow to weak economies, which not only lose their best human resources and the money spent training them, but then have to pay an estimated $5.6 billion a year to employ expatriates” (Castro 2007).
Meanwhile a World Bank report entitled, “International Migration, Remittances and the Brain Drain,” made public in October 2005, yielded the following results: “In the last 40 years, more than 1.2 million professionals from Latin America and the Caribbean have emigrated to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. An average of 70 scientists a day has emigrated from Latin America in the course of 40 years” (Cagral 2005).
The brain drain phenomenon has continued with globalization, leading to devastating impacts around the world. For example, there are 150 million people around the world involved in science and technology activities, and the 90 percent is concentrated in the seven most industrialized nations, like USA and UK, curiously the same nations where the terminology was coined. A number of countries, particularly small nations in Africa, the Caribbean and Central America, have lost over 30 percent of their population with higher education as a result of migration.
In recent years, encouraging this type of emigration has become an official state policy in a number of North countries, which use incentives and procedures especially tailored to suit this end. A clear example is the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act, approved by the US Congress in 2000, increased the temporary work visa (H-1B) allotment. The aim of this increase in the visa cap was to encourage the entry of highly qualified immigrants into the United States who could occupy positions in the high-technology sector. Though this figure was reduced in the 2005 fiscal year, the flow of professionals towards this country has remained steady. Similar measures were promulgated by the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Australia.
Turning now to Cuba, the country has a long way to escape this situation. The reality is that a lot of young people, especially educated professionals, are fleeing the island in droves. Tens of thousands have emigrated in the past two years. Even though the exodus has alarmed the government, it remains largely unreported, a taboo topic for state media. One of the reasons this topic is censured is due to its sensitive political implications. As the Journalist Harold Dillas wrote about this phenomenon,
If Cuba has technical resources that exceed its economic need owing to the hypertrophy of the educational system and the reduction of its bureaucratic apparatus, and if it has a social and economic system that frustrates people’s aspirations, it’s understandable that people will emigrate with their degrees in hand. (Dillas 2012)
However, there are also other factors that exceed the Cuban government’s will to solve the brain drain. Most of them are external factors and they are related with USA. Some data shows that between 1959 and 2004, Cuba has graduated 805,902 professionals, including medical doctors, and the United States’ unjust policy towards our country has deprived us of 5.16 percent of the professionals who graduated under the Revolution (Castro 2007). These numbers are from 2007, ten years ago, and so much has changed since then in Cuban-US policies.
The situation became so grave since then that even The New York Times published an editorial article in 2014 about the issue: “There is much to criticize about Washington’s failed policies toward Cuba and the embargo it has imposed on the island for decades. But the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program, which in the last fiscal year enabled 1,278 Cubans to defect while on overseas assignments, a record number, is particularly hard to justify” (New York Times 2014). It was hypocritical for the United States to value the contributions of Cuban doctors who assisted in international crises like the 2010 Haiti earthquake while working to subvert that government by making defection easy. As the editorial also stated “American immigration policy should give priority to the world’s neediest refugees and persecuted people. It should not be used to exacerbate the brain drain of an adversarial nation at a time when improved relations between the two countries are a worthwhile, realistic goal” (New York Times 2014).
On the other hand, the Cuban government has argued that it will not permit the emigration of professionals who are essential for national development, considering this as a measure to protect the country from the brain drain policies practiced by developed countries that negatively impact on Third World economies. “I believe –wrote Harold Dilla- that Cuba, like any other country in the world, has the right and is obliged to defend its human resources and the investments it has been made in them. But it cannot do this in just any manner” (Dilla 2012).
Perhaps Cuba needs to clearly lays out the rules that it is adopting for its protection. Measures like every professional must fulfill a national social service obligation to pay for their studies or else they should not receive their diploma. Otherwise they could financially reimburse the government if they don’t wish to perform any social service. But all of this should be quite clear and subject to contractual agreements.
The main reason for people inside and outside the country commonly forgets about the effects of USA policy on this issue is precisely because of the Cuban government’s stance on it. Governments shouldn’t have the right to prevent a person from leaving the country or returning freely for professional reasons, as well as no government should have the right to approve policies incentivizing brain drain. Therefore Cuban government should realize that every Cuban high-level professional is a veritable mine of knowledge, experiences and relationships; they represent authentic social capital that should be availed upon through positive policies. But maybe, if Cuba could find a way, not even the USA policies would make our “brain” leaves the Island, and then it would be added as an exception to Monterroso’s short story.
Bibliography
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Castro, Fidel. “The brain drain” In Cubadebate. July 17, 2007.
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http://www.taringa.net/post/arte/7866120/La-exportacion-de-cerebros-po
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