The Global Brain Trade (migration patterns of researchers)

[Liu Kang]

A survey reveals the worldwide migration patterns of researchers
By Ritchie S. King
Posted 30 Aug 2012 | 15:16 GMT

Which countries have the most foreign scientists, and which ones suffer from the worst brain drain? To answer these questions, researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research, in Massachusetts, conducted a Web-based survey of over 17 000 published scientists in 16 countries. (China wasn’t surveyed: The researchers tried but were unsuccessful in administering the survey to scientists there.) While the United States is, unsurprisingly, a popular destination for scientists from around the world, Switzerland actually has the highest percentage of immigrant scientists. On the other side of the coin, Japan is the most insular country surveyed, exchanging relatively little scientific talent with the rest of the world.


Source: “Foreign Born Scientists: Mobility Patterns for Sixteen Countries,” by Chiara Franzoni, Giuseppe Scellato, and Paula Stephan, May 2012, National Bureau of Economic Research​

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Source of the study (it is from 2012) : http://www.nber.org/papers/w18067 |
PDF link (25 pages) of the study with some explanations on the method : http://www.nber.org/papers/w18067.pdf

India and the relation with the US is interesting and (some of) the comments of the article highlight that it may be because of the caste system.
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[TTT]

I just saw this chart in relation to another article in The Economist about brain drain. The Indians say it is because of reservation or some type of AA for lower castes that push them to leave. I have heard that from some other Indian PhD students i have met in the US, I would be interested to see the numbers of these scheduled castes and their representation in academia in India. It is far more lucrative and better career wise for researchers to work in US colleges even without the reservation stuff. In the Economist chart they showed Indian diaspora median income as $80 000 annually and that is in all likelihood better than they would get at home, i think Indian PhD students and postdocs recently had to organize nationally to get a raise from the Government.

 

[Liu Kang]

I just saw this chart in relation to another article in The Economist about brain drain. The Indians say it is because of reservation or some type of AA for lower castes that push them to leave. I have heard that from some other Indian PhD students i have met in the US, I would be interested to see the numbers of these scheduled castes and their representation in academia in India. It is far more lucrative and better career wise for researchers to work in US colleges even without the reservation stuff. In the Economist chart they showed Indian diaspora median income as $80 000 annually and that is in all likelihood better than they would get at home, i think Indian PhD students and postdocs recently had to organize nationally to get a raise from the Government.

What is the "reservation" thing ? The Indian version of Affirmative Action ?