The Developing Worlds Educated face Tough Choices after Graduation. Photo: Farhad Zalmai for Mercy Corps

“Brain drain” has long bothered policymakers in poor countries says The Economist. But recent migration studies and a touch of classical economics suggest the better phrase is “brain gain."

A country that sends its most skilled workers abroad has three key advantages:

Remittances (money sent home from abroad) go up. In 2010, workers remitted $325 billion, equaling the GDP of Switzerland, largely from developed to developing countries. According to The Economist, skilled workers often find better job opportunities abroad in richer countries, multiplying their income several fold and creating the potential for additional remittances.

Émigrés return with more marketable skills. Increasing numbers of skilled migrants eventually return home with new skills, new contacts, and a pot of savings to invest after several years abroad. In one Romanian study, returning migrants earned 12 to 14 percent more than similar people who stayed home.

There is a higher incentive for education and skill development. Research from Fiji and the Cape Verde Islands show that the general level of education in a population often rises when workers see potential for immigration to “greener pastures”. People have an increased incentive to pick up skills which remain useful if they decide not to migrate after all.

Of course, emigrating tends to benefit the migrants themselves. Otherwise, they would be less likely to leave home.

"Brain gain" parallels English political economist David Ricardo’s law of “comparative advantage” -- stating that two countries with advantages in different areas are better off trading. Richer countries offer more quality employment opportunities for skilled labor while, according to two North African studies, skilled laborers remaining in developing countries often face underemployment or unemployment. Migration across borders -- swapping workers for revenue -- balances these two forces. Some studies claim the world would add $39 trillion to global growth over 25 years if labor became truly mobile.

A skilled immigrant moving from the developing to developed world could actually benefit both nations:

• The destination-country adds a skilled worker, boosting output.
• The worker's annual income rises -- say, from $10,000 (at home) to $50,000 (abroad).
• If the worker remits only 25 percent of his or her income, then losing that worker abroad actually raised the individuals contribution to GDP from $10,000 to $12,500.

Migration does create winners and losers says The Economist. The emotional toll on families continually forced to relocate can be high, though lessening with new technology. And some skilled workers (educated and trained at the expense of cash-strapped governments) do not return much to their poorer homelands.

However, the benefits of brain gain are increasingly thought of as outweighing the costs of brain drain. The Economist aptly sums it up: "Letting educated people go where they want, looks like the brainy option."