🇧🇩 Is Brain Drain Hurting Bangladesh?

[Saif]

An alarming brain drain crisis
Why are Bangladesh's brightest engineering minds leaving?

Illustration: Mubtasim Alvee

Every once in a while, the term "brain drain" pops up in discussions to dissect the migration of so many Bangladeshi students to foreign countries. Although the migration takes place in pursuit of higher studies, most of these students have no intention to return to the country. The percentage is even higher for engineering students.

While the outrage and panic regarding the lack of qualified engineering and research graduates in the country might be valid, we must ask the right questions and find out the factors which influence so many engineering students leaving their motherland.

The primary motive for engineering students to move abroad is the lack of scope and the poor salary structure in engineering jobs in the country, according to Iftekhar Amin Ifty, an M.Sc. (Engineering) student at Minnesota State University, "I graduated in Materials Science and Engineering from Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology (RUET). Since there aren't too many job options for a Materials Science graduate in the country, my father advised me to move abroad. But I wanted to stay in Bangladesh since my family, relatives and friends are all here. I started working in a government institute as well. However, a closer look into the Bangladeshi engineering job sector made me change my mind."

"Starting from the highly competitive admission procedure for the public engineering universities to four years of inhumane pressure, graduating with a good CGPA takes an insane amount of hard work," explained Ifty. "After graduation, you get offered a mere salary of Tk 26,000 – 30,000 while your business graduate friends, who experience a somewhat easier undergraduate life compared to engineering students, might be earning a higher entry salary. Discrepancies like these make all your hard work feel worthless."

For some, it is the pursuit of better learning resources and research facilities in a more developed education system that influences their decision to leave the country.

Photo: Orchid Chakma

"I have always felt that the education system in this country is broken," said Anindya Alam, a fourth-year undergraduate student at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). "The classes are boring and the teachers are mostly insincere and uninterested in teaching. I am close to finishing my undergrad now and I still feel the same. I have always liked learning new things and have grown up hearing praises about the teaching process in American universities from my relatives and friends who were in the States. Now that I am about to graduate and pursue a PhD degree, colleges in North America and Europe can provide me with the opportunities, facilities, and resources that Bangladeshi universities simply cannot."

Another massive factor for moving abroad is merely shifting to a better life in a country with more developed working and living conditions.

"If I must put my motives to settle abroad in one word, it would be to search for a better life," said Shartaz Ahmedur Rahman, an M.Sc. (Engineering) student at Auckland University of Technology. "After the first three months of studying Architecture at the Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), I wanted to move abroad. It wasn't driven by academic reasons at that point, but rather by watching the lives of some of my friends who had left the country for their undergraduate studies. After talking to them, the difference in the living conditions and facilities between Bangladesh and countries abroad hit me in the face. By my third year of undergraduate studies, when I was finally able to comprehend my field of expertise, I realised moving abroad was the only option for me."

As I spoke to more and more engineering students, it all circled back to the pitiful working conditions and salary structure for engineers in Bangladesh. In the end, our engineering students are left with one of three feasible options: switching their fields by doing an MBA, sitting for the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) exams, or leaving the country in pursuit of higher studies.

"Anyone who worked in the technical fields in Bangladesh can vouch that it is a massively competitive and stressful field. Either you break yourself mentally and physically to reach the top in the private sector, or you grind yourself to land a government job," said Shartaz. "In the private sector, unless you have backing from your family, it is impossible to sustain a life in Dhaka. The starting salary of most engineers will come around a little over Tk 25,000; for architects, it may be even less. Moreover, if we look at the massive trend of engineers pursuing MBA degrees after finishing their undergrad, it's evident that there is a huge shortage of technical fields, or the available technical jobs are not paying well enough to keep these graduates interested."

"Even big private companies are not offering their engineers salaries more than Tk 40,000," said Ifty. "Running a family with such a salary in this economy isn't practical. Right now, I am working as a graduate teaching assistant while pursuing my master's, and my monthly allowance here is a little over Tk 120,000 in Bangladeshi currency. I was even able to buy my own car with the savings from my allowance. Back in Bangladesh, it would have taken me more than ten years of constant grinding day and night to reach this pay scale in the private sector."

For someone like Anindya, whose primary motivation is research, he believes that more modern and well-maintained laboratories in engineering universities are necessary to encourage engineering students to stay in the country.

"We need to expand access to the latest technology and ensure adequate funding for research laboratories that inspire engineering students to innovate and pursue research within the country," said Anindya. "Better pay for teachers and training programmes should also be ensured so that they are more sincere in their approach to academia. Finally, universities should introduce more ambitious and fun courses in the curriculum that inspire students to pursue their interests."

Shartaz believes that employers use the excuse of heavy reliance of engineering graduates on theoretical knowledge to lower the starting salary, "Bangladeshi or Asian engineering curricula are heavily influenced by theoretical knowledge. Eventually, employers use this as an excuse to lower the entry salary and demoralise people to pursue technical fields. There is no work-life balance in the private sector. Despite having a huge ethical guideline from the Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) and the Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB), no one is following that, which is leading to a very stressful environment in the private job sectors."

The talks of reforming the country have been crowding up the internet since the students' movement. One of the key prerequisites for effective reform of Bangladesh is putting a halt to the brain drain and initiating what has been termed as "reverse brain drain". The Indian government, for example, has taken up several schemes to repatriate the scholars who went abroad and they have seen some success through the Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship, which led to more than 550 biotechnologists returning to India from abroad.

To ensure that the best of minds in Bangladesh get to work for the development of their country, it is crucial that our engineers and researchers are provided with enough facilities and options which are lucrative enough for them to consider staying in the country, and maybe even come back to their homeland after they are done pursuing higher studies abroad.

Reference

Nature (December 13, 2023). Big ideas: India's drive to stem the brain drain.​

 

[Saif]

Plug the brain drain

As a developing country, Bangladesh is a victim of brain drain.

www.thedailystar.net

Plug the brain drain

VISUAL: STAR

As a developing country, Bangladesh is a victim of brain drain. Generally, this issue is more prevalent among students who have access to higher education abroad. Although a large number of students migrate abroad for higher studies every year, the rate of return is declining alarmingly. According to UNESCO's "Global Flow of Tertiary-Level Students" report, 60,390 Bangladeshi students were pursuing higher studies abroad in 2017. This number is increasing at the rate of 10 percent every year. Most of them are settling permanently in those countries after completing their studies.

In our country, the idea of living abroad permanently is viewed as something prestigious. The potential of Bangladesh becoming an incompetent nation is not visible to most people. Besides high salaries, developed countries ensure a more secure life. These facilities are still inadequate in our country.

The inconsistency of the education system in Bangladesh and the inability to ensure world-class education is one of the reasons behind brain drain. When a research enthusiast realises that his/her lifelong dream cannot be fulfilled in their own country, he/she will naturally want to go abroad. According to the annual report of the University Grants Commission (UGC), 125 public and private universities of the country altogether spent only Tk 153 crore on research activities in 2019, which is only one percent of their total expenditure.

Rich nations are also indirectly luring talented people from less-developed and developing countries to contribute to their own development. But it would be foolish to view Bangladesh's brain drain only through the few reasons mentioned above. Firstly, we must understand exactly which factors are discouraging a highly educated person from settling permanently in their homeland.

State policymakers need to think about issues related to quality of life, employment opportunities, social structure, financial security, development, gender equality, and freedom of all walks of life. After all, a state can only become full of opportunities with the contribution of its most skilled people.

Syed Rifat, Jagannath University​

 

[Saif]

How can Bangladesh turn on its ‘brain gain’?

Bangladesh is currently suffering from an acute shortage of skilled workers and managers.

www.thedailystar.net

How can Bangladesh turn on its ‘brain gain’?

Bangladesh needs to develop a mechanism to tap into the huge resource of its expatriate citizens scattered around the world. VISUAL: STAR
Over the last decade or so, Bangladesh has done well on both economic and social indicators. Development continues even amid the challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. And it seems the effect of this development has gone beyond socioeconomic measures and quietly made a profound psychological impact on the people of the country. As a result, a kind of confidence is slowly taking root in the hearts and minds of Bangladeshis – the confidence that translates to, "Yes, we can."

Based on its economic and social accomplishments, Bangladesh has qualified to transition from the least developed country (LDC) status to that of a developing country. This is undoubtedly a landmark achievement. There is pride in it, but there are challenges, too. Strong leadership, foresight, and prudent policies and programmes are crucial for sustaining as a middle-income country and working towards attaining the goals of Vision 2041. Hence, the question arises: will human resources be a critical impediment on the way to progress? Does the nation have a strategy to counter such impediment?

Bangladesh is currently suffering from an acute shortage of skilled workers and managers. The situation is deteriorating day by day as the shortage is intensifying in keeping up with the development process. Today, many firms, both local and international, are hiring foreign workers and managers to fill in the gap. The skill shortage is not only an impediment in the current situation, it will become a major deterrent in achieving further growth in the future, if not addressed appropriately and urgently. A 2019 report by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) revealed that various sectors such as ready-made garment (RMG), leather, ICT, infrastructure development, food processing, light engineering, healthcare, tourism, and ship-building industry will require several millions of skilled workers and experts by 2025. Where will this skilled workforce come from? The country's technical education and training centres as well as higher education institutes have long failed to keep up with the demand. Given the situation, is it worth considering a "brain gain" strategy as a viable alternative?

When, in the early 70s, I went abroad for the first time, I was introduced to the concept of "brain drain." The term was coined by the Royal Society in the 1950s when a large number of British scientists and engineers left Britain for Canada and the US. This term describes the process of any skilled or semi-skilled individual leaving one country (mostly their native country) to another. Over the past four and a half decades, millions of Bangladeshis have migrated abroad for various reasons. These emigrants are skilled and engaged in various professions, including health, IT, engineering, economic planning, academia, and business. How can this brain drain that has taken place for years be converted to brain gain?

On the other hand, brain gain is creating short- or long-term opportunities to bring back expatriates who have been working as skilled individuals and experts in various fields abroad back to their countries of origin. In the context of the contemporary business world, the phenomena of brain drain and brain gain can be considered in light of export and import in global trade. Both phenomena should be taken positively. A significant segment of Bangladesh's human resource exports – which is brain drain – are semi-skilled or unskilled. It is possible to further strengthen our manpower export by developing highly skilled and professional artisans and service providers through training and education. By doing so, it would be possible to increase the export of skilled workforce on the one hand, while on the other hand, it would be possible to add high value in the work context. As a result, Bangladesh could even double the amount of remittance that it currently receives from expatriate workers in the foreseeable future.

In the early 1990s, when Rajiv Gandhi's government opened the door to India's economy, India became a part of the global market. Gradually, many Indians living and working in the US and other Western countries returned to India. Most of those who are involved in the "Silicon Valley of India" in Bengaluru today once worked for multinational corporations abroad in various capacities. This process of bringing expatriate experts back to the country was India's brain gain. The same happened in China.

Many Bangladeshi expatriates visit the country every year and make attempts to contribute to their respective fields of expertise at home. But it is done purely on a piecemeal basis. This is a major hindrance to the country's brain-gain effort. Can a coherent strategy be devised by the government to facilitate the country's brain gain? Needless to say, through the brain-gain effort, the nation can acquire the services of skilled experts at a bare minimum cost.

Following the roadmap of Vision 2021, Bangladesh will soon make the transition from a least developed country to a developing country. Achieving Vision 2041 requires the mobilisation of both internal and external resources. That can be done through brain gain, tapping into an untapped external resource.

How can Bangladesh gain access to this untapped, inexhaustible resource, then? A global network of Bangladeshi expatriates can be formed, bringing in experts in various fields such as education, health, economy, technology, and agriculture, located in the developed world including Australia, the UK, and the US, under one platform. The Bangladeshi missions around the world can play the role of coordinators in developing databases of such experts. These experts can participate and work in teams in various institutions and megaprojects in Bangladesh. Such a network of experts with the skills and experience acquired in developed countries can infuse both hard and soft skills into our economy quickly and at a minimum cost. In addition, it would be quite natural to witness a multiplier effect in the efforts of the expatriate experts due to their connection to Bangladesh. India and China have benefited and continue to be benefited from the brain-gain effort. I believe we can, too.

Dr Shams Rahman is a professor of supply chain management at RMIT University, Australia.​

 

[Saif]

Flights of human capital a.k.a brain drain

Legend has it: the black magician Doctor Faustus sold his soul to devil in exchange of 24 years of earthly knowledge and pleasure.

www.thedailystar.net

Flights of human capital a.k.a brain drain

Source: Quotemaster.Org

Legend has it: the black magician Doctor Faustus sold his soul to devil in exchange of 24 years of earthly knowledge and pleasure. As he was about to sign the contract with the devil's agent, his blood started congealing and a divine warning appeared on his arm: homo fuge, Latin for, "O man, Fly!" The Renaissance man Faustus had a different idea. He saw the flight not as a threat but as an opportunity to go near heaven and learn new things to add to the branches of knowledge that he had already mastered, and to eventually share the benefits with his poor colleagues at Wittenberg (little did he know that the devil had other plans).

In theory, this has to be the "first" literary instance of a complex issue: brain drain. I say it with caution as myths and legends are full of instances where culture heroes travel to the other world and smuggle in knowledge and resources. For instance, Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and started human civilisation. Or, Jack pursued the seed of ambition that was implanted in him to climb the bean-stalk and fool the giants to steal their goodies, which can only be an allegory of colonial exploitations. Faust legend gives us an academic footing. The transaction of cross-border knowledge is one of the trophies of human migration and mobility. What are the atrophies?

A group of outgoing students of Dhaka University came to see me at ULAB. I asked them how many of them plan to go abroad; all 20 raised their hands in unison. They want to fly; they want to fly away. Do they plan to return home—I didn't ask. Instead, I told them about my return from the academic sojourns across the Atlantic divide. I told them about the mentors who shaped me into becoming who I am today. I didn't, however, tell them how my brown skin made my kind subject to extra-screening at airport, extra-surveillance at supermarkets, or extra-scorns from jingoist supremacists. I didn't want to dampen their spirit.

These were all bright kids. It would be a shame to see them all go, and not to listen to their career counsellors who poured into their ears with the elixir of BCS. Yet it would be a source of pride to see them perform at an international stage. The planned exodus, based on my spot survey, is not unique. A cousin of mine, who works at a multinational company after graduating from IBA, was telling me that most of his peers had got PRs in developed countries or were in the process of moving out. Some of them are investing in buying a second home. "If you want to send your children to good schools, get a decent healthcare service, or live a better life, the salary and opportunities that you get here is never adequate. The Return on Investment (ROI) is much higher in the developed countries," he reasoned.

Then again, what about the investment that the government has made in producing these graduates? How many millions does the government spend in producing a cadet college student who then goes on to become an IBA graduate? An engineer from BUET? Or a doctor from DMC? Or an early retired military officer? All to become a product in the export pipeline. The local job market is not ready to absorb them, nurture them, retain them, or utilise them. My office assistant is an electrical engineer from a private university, whose salary equals that of our chauffer.

I looked for a long-term human resource projection from the government in vain. Are there any HR demand projections in the service sectors? Do we really know our graduates? Does the industry know what the academic institutes are producing? There is hardly any assessment of our human capital. There is no strategic investment to develop particular skill-sets required by our job sector; industry linkage is a buzzword that adorns our official documents. I don't blame our young generation for their desire to fly away from their nests. I shall not quote someone who once said, "it is better to drain brain, rather than to have the brain in a drain". We have moved beyond that proverbial bottomless basket stage. On the contrary, we are the basket that attracts employees from other countries. We are the fourth largest remittance earner for our big neighbour who siphons out more than 5 billion dollars a year. Surely, a portion of that sum can be used to train our brains and stop the foreign ones from encroaching ours. Nevertheless, the pull of the glamour and glory of western life will remain. The migration of human capital, popularly known as brain drain, is a natural phenomenon, and we need to make the best use of it.

Recent research shows that brain drain is not necessarily a loss for the sending country. Brain drain can contribute to the development of the home countries through brain circulation and linkage. Even if the highly-skilled professionals from the developing countries decide not to return from the host countries, they can still contribute to the social and economic development of their home countries. To optimise the benefit, a clear understanding of the high-skilled labour flows involving brain retention, brain gain, brain circulation and brain linkages is needed.

In an ideal world, the national infrastructure should retain its human capital by creating not only growth opportunities or social safety-nets but also a critical mass of educated professionals. The job market needs to expand beyond its traditional niche to encourage an entrepreneurial culture where our graduates stop becoming job-seekers and start becoming job creators.

Brain gain can only happen if we can attract foreign scholars to become part of our system. The migration of Jewish scholars to the US after the Second World War is a case in point. For us, perhaps, the relevant categories are brain circulation and brain linkages.

We have to accept the fact that mobility is a natural human impulse. In this age of globalisation, millions of students are crossing their national boundaries in search of better education, better life. Two top sending countries—China and India—have benefited immensely from the brain circulation and brain linkage. Even a country like Bhutan has adopted a clear policy to manage its human capital. While Bhutan wants its graduates to go abroad and benefit from the best practices, it closely monitors a permanent return migration by offering a loan scheme and scholarship programme for its students applying in STEM. The government has also drafted a plan to assess the global human resource requirements so that their graduates will have greater chances of getting employed outside Bhutan.

Given the high number of students and emigrants who have already settled in the developed countries, Bangladesh can start off by focusing on brain linkages. This means we need to foster the home-host interactions to explore possibilities beyond the monetary remittances. There should be ways to engage our "brain abroad" with our universities and industries. The human capital needs to be translated to social capital. The experiences of India and China can guide us in developing our national infrastructure at an international level and producing a critical mass so that our returnee scholars feel comfortable in spending a term or initiating joint collaborative research works. In other words, we need to make more investments in higher education so that we can engage our brains abroad. For instance, if an electrical engineer wants to engage in a research on AI or cloud computing, s/he will surely look for a sophisticated lab or updated student associates.

True, our students will fly away. We have given them the wings; we expect them to leave the nest—not because it is ruined, but because we expect them to acquire further knowledge from the best ideas and practices out there. At the same time, we must fix our nests in a way that attracts our migratory scholars to come back, get involved, and train others about the trophies and atrophies they collected during their flights.

Shamsad Mortuza is Professor of English, University of Dhaka (now on leave). Currently, he is Pro-Vice-Chancellor of ULAB.​