Skilled-Worker Mobility and Development in Latin American: Between Brain Drain and Brain Waste

Fernando Lozano-Ascencio, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Luciana Gandini, El Colegio de México

The general objective of this paper is to analyze the current emigration trends of skilled workers from Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. The paper identifies the LAC´s countries and subregions that have been most hardly hit by qualified migration in the past few years. Similarly, it analyses the issue of "brain drain" in light of the changes in the global market for qualified labor force, and the economic and social impacts of "brain waste", both in countries of origin and destination. The authors also utilize cross-national regression analysis to examine the effect of social and economic variables on the highly skill migration rates from 33 LAC countries. Findings indicate that the population size, the region of origin and the human development indicators (educational index) are strongly associated to the rates of skilled migration. The results are discussed in the context of contemporary development and migration theories.