By Stephen Leahy
BROOKLIN, Canada, Jun 15 2006 (IPS)

Many expatriate scientists and medical professionals who work in Canada want to contribute their skills to their native developing countries – all that is lacking are mechanisms to help them do so without permanently returning to their country of origin, reports a study to appear Friday in Science magazine.

For many years, industrialised countries have been attracting scientists, engineers, information technology experts and talented university students from poorer countries in what’s called “a global brain drain”.

“The brain drain is a very big problem for developing countries. In sub-Saharan African countries, the majority of medical doctors have left,” said report co-author Abdallah Daar, director of ethics and policy at the R. Samuel McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine at the University of Toronto.

“They leave to find a better future for their families, for better salaries and improved research or career opportunities,” Daar told IPS.

But there was a strong desire to help their country of origin among the 60 scientists from developing countries who now live and work in Canada and were interviewed for the study, he said.

“Although we didn’t investigate their motivation, it seems to be a sense of obligation and altruism,” Daar said.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that skilled IT workers from poor countries, especially in Asia, now account for one-sixth of the U.S. total IT workforce. Indeed IT entrepreneurs who created highly successful companies like Intel and Ebay were not U.S. citizens.

Other countries that rely heavily on such workers include Australia, Canada and Britain, and to a lesser extent in Denmark, Finland and Italy, the OECD reported.

In Canada, it is estimated that 15,000 science and health-related experts alone immigrated from developing countries. It could be at least 10 times that number in the U.S., Daar says as a rough guess.

Not surprisingly, these countries have aggressive marketing, lucrative incentive plans and long-term visas designed to attract the best and the brightest from around the world.

“The loss of highly skilled health workers has a big impact on many countries, including those in Latin America,” says co-author Béatrice Séguin of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics.

Although some of those who are part of this “scientific diaspora” return to their country of origin, particularly India and China, most do not want to return permanently, Séguin said in an interview.

“This is not about permanent return, it is about creating mechanisms to enable collaborations, training, skills exchanges on a short or medium-term basis or virtually,” she said.

One creative example is an expatriate Kenyan who is a professor of engineering in the U.S. and who teaches students in Kenya via computer. The Kenyan students can control and do experiments using expensive research equipment located in the U.S. through computers located at their Kenyan school, she says.

Industrialised countries should promote this kind of exchange with a “National Science Corps” to fund the direct interaction between diaspora scientists and science and technology institutions in their countries of origin, the report recommends.

Another approach is a “Diaspora Business Initiative” that would offer support and funding for partnerships between business, research and educational institutions and professionals in industrialised and developing countries.

“These mechanisms needn’t cost very much and would benefit industrialised countries like Canada,” says Daar

The scientific diaspora represents an untapped resource for their countries of origin. And since industrialised countries greatly benefit from the brain drain, they should help enable those expatriates who are willing and able. If the Group of Eight countries make “brain circulation” a priority it would foster innovation in developing countries, which could create long-term health and economic benefits, the report said.

Industrialised countries will also benefit from expanded networks and partnerships with emerging markets and related commercial opportunities, enhancing their own international competitiveness and productivity, the report concludes.

“If the Canadian government created an organisation, provided us with a nucleus, made the initial effort, I think there would be so many people who would join,” said one participant in the study.

Currently Canada is developing a government agency to assess the credentials of professionals immigrating to Canada to ease their entry. That would be excellent starting point from which to gather information and to create formal mechanisms to “enable diaspora scientists in Canada to give back to their countries of origin”, says Séguin.

There are many ways this can be done but the next step is to convene a conference or pilot project with one country to work out some of the ways this might be accomplished, she says: “It’s a very exciting initiative with tremendous potential.”

Excerpt: