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4HISTORIC CHANGES UNDERWAY IN AFRICAN MIGRATION POLICIES FROM MUDDLING THROUGH TO ORGANIZED BRAIN CIRCULATION RUBIN PATTERSON This chapter takes a step back and examines the new state of play in Africa with respect to brain circulation or the deliberate attempt among southern nations to utilize emigration to advance their socioeconomic development. Numerous modalities exist that illustrate the existence and dimensions of brain circulation on the continent. Researchers could conduct in-depth case studies of nations and comparative analyses to examine closely the strategies of these nations. Another option for researchers is to ascertain primary data or take existing secondary data on dozens of African nations and apply inferential statistics to analyze their brain circulation strategies. Researchers could also apply statistical analysis to cross-tabulated data or even subject extensive panel study data to analysis . All these approaches are valuable and our collective understanding of brain circulation in Africa would be enriched tremendously if we had a combination of studies applying to each of these approaches. I chose a totally different approach for my study. My work started with a broad reading of brain circulation literature on a widely diverse set of nations , which is a literature primarily reporting that governments today are, in a broad sense, universally embracing the “migration for development ” strategy, albeit in different ways and in varying degrees. The proposition that I am exploring is that African states, much like their Asian and Latin American counterparts, are also organizing their versions of brain circulation at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. From there, I have engaged several major institutions in Africa that have interacted extensively with many countries on the continent regarding such a development strategy and other development topics. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for southern Africa reported that they were indeed work- 79 Changes Underway in African Migration Policies ing on such issues with governments in southern Africa and other parts of the continent. In some instances NEPAD was providing encouragement to nations to pursue such a strategy, and in some other instances IOM for southern Africa was being approached by nations to provide technical support on migration with implications for development. This research strategy is valuable, too, just as are the approaches outlined in the opening paragraph, and it yields unique insights that augment the literature on brain circulation in Africa. The perspective that I bring to this subject includes the understanding that migration of some talent from nations of the South to nations of the West is inevitable. Failure to develop a migration for development strategy will neither prevent nor discourage such migration of talent from occurring . However, developing such a strategy enables the sending nation to both mitigate the short- to medium-term adverse impacts and maximize the medium- to long-term benefits of migrants returning some of the human , economic, and social capital they acquire in Western countries. It is certainly true that African nations have far fewer highly skilled technical professionals than their Asian counterparts. Alas, acknowledgment of this fact by African highly skilled technical professionals will not deter them from seeking to migrate. Rather than focusing on the fact that African nations can least afford to follow Asian nations in a brain circulation strategy due to an acute shortage of highly skilled technical professionals, I conclude—based on years of interrogating this subject through fieldwork in Africa, Asia, and Latin America—that Africans can least afford not to develop comprehensive brain circulation strategies. Because African nations are destined to lose some of their tiny fractions of professionals, an even greater urgency exists for them to develop and implement plans, mechanisms, and structures to turn the immediate losses into mediumand long-term gains. I also acknowledge that not all South-to-West migrants are in pursuit of economic gains. The work of many scholars makes that point abundantly clear (Levitt 2001; Manuh 2005; Brinkerhoff 2009; Arthur 2010). That is, every year, the impetus behind the emigration of thousands in the South is associated with a combination of religious toleration, political freedom, intellectual growth, artistic expression, cultural enrichment, or cosmopolitan impulses, among other factors. To my knowledge, no comprehensive , authoritative scholarly study has been conducted in which South-to-West migrants are interviewed and asked to rank the principal reasons for their international migration. Each of the factors cited above is certainly worthy of book-length independent investigations rather than an attempt to examine them holistically...

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