The Root Causes and Possible Solutions to Singapore's Brain Drain Problem
As more young Singaporeans migrate to greener pastures overseas, one must wonder why is such a situation even happening. This is termed "brain drain", as the young and bright of the nation migrates and leaves their country of birth. Singapore is experiencing such a situation, as most scholars sent overseas do not return home (back to Singapore) and continue to stay in the country they have choose to study in. Such an occurrence will definitely be detrimental to Singapore in the long run. Why do such things happen, and what can we do in order to reverse or stop such a scenario?
The point brought up by my source is that the youths of Singapore now have a relatively firm grasp of English, which makes them marketable to other countries. This was stated by no less than Minister Mentor Lee himself. However, I have to disagree with him on this point. If there is a strong cultural identity in Singapore, a strong sense of belonging to the country, a feeling that "this is my home", fostered and felt by the youth of Singapore, will they want to leave the country? Life is not all about economics and the concrete materialism; abstract ideals also play an important role.
Another key reason Singaporeans leave Singapore is the stifling political scene in Singapore. My uncle did just that. That is a climate and cloak of fear that prevents citizens from speaking our against the government. A compliant and fearful population once given freedom for extended periods of time will continue yearning for it. This might not be true for some cases, but a caged bird once released for a period of time will be addicted to freedom. Globalization allows opportunities in other countries never before existed, is an important factor in translating the yearn to migrate into reality.
What can we do to stop this outflow of local talent? It seems that the government's course of action is to import foreign talent to Singapore to bulk up the workforce and to replace those locals lost to other nations. I feel that this is a relatively shortsighted and short term solution. Not suffering Aryan complex, xenophobia or anything, but young Singaporeans born and bred here are much better culturally and socially as compared to foreigners. As for foreigners, there would have been no difference to them if they had gone to another country. The infrastructure of China and India (our two biggest markets for foreign talent) is constantly improving and twenty years down the road the Chinese and Indians will stop coming over to Singapore as their living conditions will be near or exceed Singapore standards. Reliance on others is a short term solution. The very concept of defense is also threatened as there will be few people who will serve their reservist.
The only way to stop brain drain is to remove the stifling politically-titled restrictions on the citizens of Singapore. By doing so, citizens can satisfy the abstract and idealistic half of the equation. The other half of the equation (the concrete and practical considerations) can be settled by reducing to amounts of cheap foreign talent. This will allow higher wages to be offered to the citizens of Singapore. Developing nations' salaries will get more as a result of their development and thus we can remain competitive without our citizens losing out. The very concept of brain drain is due to the unhappiness of the people with their government. If this unhappiness and dissatisfaction is removed, the problem of brain drain will be resolved.
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Article : Brain drain worry hits close to home
THE worry over brain drain has hit close to home for Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
Yesterday, he related this story from within his family: "I have a grandson who has just gone to MIT, he's doing economics... Fortunately for the father, he decided to apply for a Public Service Commission (PSC) scholarship, which means he is bonded to come back.
"He has written to his brother, who has just got his baccalaureate results, and says: 'Don't take a scholarship'."
The older brother reasoned that the younger one, with his interest in studying IT, would have no shortage of employers wanting him later: "Any number of people will be searching for you."
The Minister Mentor, who was speaking at the Silver Industry Conference and Exhibition, did not name either grandson, but it is likely that the PSC scholar is Mr Li Hongyi, the third of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's four children.
He was awarded a PSC scholarship to study economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.
The other brother is Haoyi, who recently got his International Baccalaureate results, scoring 43 out of a possible 45.
MM Lee cited their story to illustrate just how real the threat of a brain drain is to Singapore.
"Our problem now is we have an educated population, educated in English, which makes them marketable," he said.
"Way back in the 1960s, we were net gainers because the wealthy countries, mostly whites, excluded Asians. So Malaysians, Chinese and others, Indonesians came here... Now they leave, they go to Australia and New Zealand, Canada, US, and big open countries. Our students are now being harvested from the top colleges in the US... It is a real problem," he said.
Despite the brotherly advice, it appears that MM Lee's younger grandson will be applying for a scholarship.
He told his grandfather over their Sunday lunch that he is planning to apply for an Infocomm Development Authority scholarship and do IT. "He doesn't want to work in any other," said MM Lee.
MM Lee added: "I hope he does apply and he will come back."