Make your work easier and more efficient installing the rrojasdatabank  toolbar ( you can customize it ) in your browser. 
Counter visits from more than 160  countries and 1400 universities (details)

The political economy of development
This academic site promotes excellence in teaching and researching economics and development, and the advancing of describing, understanding, explaining and theorizing.
About us- Castellano- Français - Dedication
Home- Themes- Reports- Statistics/Search- Lecture notes/News- People's Century- Puro Chile- Mapuche


World indicators on the environmentWorld Energy Statistics - Time SeriesEconomic inequality

Latin America: brain drain largest for Argentina

Ricardo Sametband
10 May 2005
Source: SciDev.Net

[BUENOS AIRES] Argentina has the highest percentage of scientists emigrating from Latin America to the United States, according to a study by the Economy Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal).

Andrés Solimano, an economist at Cepal, told a meeting of the Foreign Knowledge Networks for Employment and Development last month (27 April) that for every thousand Argentineans who emigrate to the United States, 191 are qualified professionals, scientists or technicians

In Chile the number drops to 156, in Peru to 100, and in Mexico to 26. 

"This is part of a bigger study we are conducting at the Cepal, about international mobility of talents. We want to study the movement of qualified people around the globe, be they scientists, technicians, corporate executives, or artists," Solimano told SciDev.Net.

He added that Latin American countries spend a lot of money training scientists, but these end up leaving because of a lack of funding, jobs, or government interest in research. Their countries of origin are not seeing the benefits from their investment, he said.

According to Solimano, science policymakers need to put this issue on their agendas. This would help indigenous researchers in foreign countries link up with other scientists in their homeland, or even encourage them to come home.

"All countries have emigration; the key is to understand the relation between highly skilled labour and nationality. The number of science graduates continues to grow in [Latin America], but research budgets can't cope with this," says Lucas Luchilo, a researcher at the Centro Redes, a public institution specialising in science and technology development in Latin America.

Two years ago, the Secretary of Technology, Science and Innovation in Argentina set up Programa Raíces (Roots Program), a program to reach out to Argentinean researchers working around the globe. The Argentinean Student and Graduates in the United States Center, a website with chapters in Miami, Dallas and New York, has started the Argentinean Diaspora Project with the same purpose.

Read more about brain drain in SciDev.Net's brain drain dossier.


Related links:
Raíces Program (in Spanish)
Argentinean Student and Graduates in the United States Centre (in Spanish and English)
Centro Redes (in Spanish and English)
Dossiers:
Brain Drain
Anne-Marie Gaillard
Consultant
Binod Khadria
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Jean-Baptiste Meyer (chairperson)
Institute of Research for Development
Sally Peberdy
Southern African Migration Project
María Adela Pellegrino
Universidad de la Republica
Léa Velho
University of the United Nations
Our full range of news, views and information from around the globe
The latest from our regional networks