Study warns against brain drain from the Arab states

A new Arab study, quoted by the Kuwaiti news agency (KUNA) warns against the brain drain from Arab to developed countries and underlined the need for an Arab strategy to address this problem.

The study conducted by the Gulf Center for Strategic Studies said Arab countries would be emptied of their experts if the drain continued at the current pace. It noted that western states, which enacted laws against immigration of developing states' citizens in general have adopted other plans to lure experts from these states.

Western states need more immigrants due to their low birth rates, and then try to select those immigrants among the highly-qualified people, notably after the noticed drop in the number of their scientific experts and the decline in the number of those who choose scientific majors.

The study said that 60% of Arabs who have studied in the U.S.A. and 50% among those who studied in France have not returned back home after the end of their studies, while 750,000 highly-qualified people left developing nations to developed ones.

It expected the brain drain to continue as a natural result of globalization and urged the Arab League to include this issue in its concerns and conduct relevant statistics.