Brain Drain

Brain Drain

The topic I have chosen is the "Brain Drain". Is this a brain drain or a brain gain for Canada? Canadians believe it is a brain drain for them. The United States is also losing some of their students to Canada. This is a real issue facing Canadians; they are losing many of their highly educated students each year. "The issue of "brain drain" is a political hot potato in Canada". (Quoted by Wayne Kondro). Many of these students are moving to the United States because they are being paid a lot better.

This so called "brain drain" south was particularly dramatic in the mid- 1990's. There are many knowledgeable Canadians heading South of the border. Our low Canadian dollar is part of the reason why people chose to move to the States. Canadian's are being paid much more working in the US than they are being paid in Canada. High taxes are another reason Canada is driving people into the states. Another main reason why so many Canadians are leaving to live in the U.S. is the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The so called brain drain is actually a brain gain. The ratio is 1:4, for every Canadian going to the U.S., Canada is gaining four U.S. educated students. Immigrants are three times more likely to hold a master's degree, doctoral or medical degree than the Canadian born population is. Therefore, this says that people who are immigrating into Canada are keeping more of their degrees, than people immigrating to the states. In the end not all the people moving to the states stay there, there is a small percentage of them moving back. Maybe because in the states they aren't getting all the benefits Canadians are getting. For example medical care.

The facts state that this is a brain drain. There are more than one hundred thousand skilled Canadians moving out of Canada each year. This includes graduates and people who are being offered better paying job.

A recent poll said that eight out of ten Canadian's have considered moving to the U.S. Eighty one percent say that the biggest lure is the higher pay.

"Just over 4,600 post-secondary graduates from the class of 1995 were living in the United States as of the summer of 1997. By the time of the survey in March 1999, about 830 (18%) of these graduates had moved back to Canada". (Quoted from The Daily).

The weakness is that Canada