Brain drain takes us down dangerous precipice

While Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented issue of brain drain accelerated by the current economic crisis and the resultant political uncertainty, the leaders of the country are announcing plans for establishing more Universities.   
It can only be justifiable if they are certain that the migration trend or the craving for migration among the country’s youth could be restrained by the recovery of the economy. Otherwise, establishing new higher education institutions such as Universities would be an attempt to fetch water in a holed bucket, as the Sinhala adage goes.   

A leading Sinhala newspaper on Sunday quoted a survey as saying that 80 per cent of youth in the country is planning to migrate to other countries, especially to the West, posing a huge threat to the well-being of their ageing parents.   
Whatever the veracity of the percentage of youth given in the said study, it is a well-known fact that the economic crisis has created a craze among the youth of the country who do not see a future for them here to leave for any country in the world, sometimes for good, even without the knowledge of their destination, livelihood or the risks that lurk ahead.   
President Ranil Wickremesinghe during two recent events touched upon both brain drain and expansion of Sri Lanka’s higher education facilities. During a meeting with Ratnapura Sivali Central College’s Student Parliament on September 6, he stated that his government had planned to establish 10 new Universities in the country and facilitate higher education opportunities for Sri Lankan students in England and America, through student loans, while saying in a lighter vein that how many of those who are going to be benefitted from his plans would stay in the country was a question.   
Similarly, during his address at the Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the G77 and China in Havana, Cuba on September 15 the President brought to the notice of the leaders of the Group the brain drain from the Global South to the North and the resulting loss of educated manpower which is a huge threat to the development of Science Technology and Innovation of the South while pointing out that China, India, Japan and South Korea have developed Science Technology and Innovation by nurturing their manpower.   
He went to the extent of proposing to the Global South to “Ask for compensation from the North for the loss of our manpower.”  
Brain drain has been an issue in Sri Lanka for decades that has to be addressed. However, despite having access to opportunities abroad and the remunerations and facilities in developed countries have been a far cry from those of Sri Lanka, many professionals and skilled men and women did not want to leave the country.   

This may be due to the sense of gratitude towards the so-called free education and the attachment to the family nurtured by the local culture, apart from the social status they enjoyed based on their relatively higher lifestyles here.   
However, especially the effects of the economic crisis, the exposure of the corrupt political culture of the country which was a core issue in the slogans of last year’s public uprising or the Aragalaya and most importantly the deficiency in assurances of recovery in the near future have blown up all moral values such as patriotism, family attachments.   
Thus migration has become a craving among the youth, educated or uneducated, skilled or unskilled.   
This is a vicious cycle.   
The economic crisis accelerated the brain drain which was somewhat endurable earlier and it is in turn immensely affecting the economy by way of loss of human capital, pushing the country behind in the global competition and compelling the country to depend on foreign expertise at an extremely higher cost.   

This is a national crisis which must be addressed by all concerned – political leaders, experts, the public and the media.   
Compensation from the Global North is a remote possibility and it would not help the developing countries at the moment. Opposition parties should not make the mistake of taking mileage from the situation since whoever comes to power at the next election would have to face it, sometimes at a higher pace.