The lack of development opportunities, unemployment and limited professional growth force the “brain drain”, that is, the migration of qualified people.
Mexico is the country of Latin America most affected by this phenomenon and the seventh in the world. Between 2015 and 2017, 866 thousand Mexican talents left the country, according to the OECD.
According to the study “Qualified migration: between the loss of talent and the opportunity to transform Mexico with innovation” –2017–, in 1990 there were 44 thousand Mexican postgraduate emigrants (abroad), a figure that rose to 303 thousand in 2015, that is, the amount multiplied almost 7 times in 25 years, an increase of 588 percent.
The research adds that Mexican talent stands out in areas such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics, administration and finance.
Due to its proximity, the US is the country that concentrates the largest number of migrants; it is estimated that eight out of 10 Mexican postgraduates have it as their main destination. Then Germany, Canada, Spain, France, the United Kingdom and Japan; China has also increased the recruitment of scientists, Conacyt reported.
The reasons for this flight are different, but the study concluded that the migration of Mexican talent stems from a “structural” problem, linked to the country’s development model, the low participation of private companies and the crisis that it unleashed could be added. the COVID pandemic.
Tonatiuh Anzures, Honorary Research Associate at University College London, in the United Kingdom, explained that only 20% of investment in science and technology in our country comes from the private sector, compared to the US or China where it is greater than 50%. For example, 21% of Silicon Valley’s human capital are Mexican, reported the Monterrey Technological Observatory.
As labor migration stopped due to COVID, more than 30 countries created programs to motivate mobile tech workers, even loosening their work rules for those who had already moved, a report by The New York Times indicated.
By Sayuri López
PAL
