Quote Originally Posted by lucy View Post
I don't say the people should be made to stay in Ghana or wherever, i just wanted to point out that those countries invest a lot of money to educate a nurse or a physician which then goes abroad. It's just another form of draining resources.
They of course have all the right on earth to move. Sorry if i didn't make that clear at all.
It seems clear enough, but my objection remains: it is not "draining resources" for them to leave - rather, the countries are failing to attract and retain people they need. It's something I see here, which is probably why it irritates me so much: people talk of a "brain drain" when people like me (the IT profession has been particularly affected, for obvious reasons) and talk of creating obstacles to us leaving, rather than identifying and fixing the root problem: rather than changing the country's laws and systems so we *can't* leave as easily, change them so we don't *want* to leave any more!

(Companies occasionally fall into this trap, too, regarding their customers and staff as an entitlement to be prevented from leaving, rather than people on whom their existence depends, people they need to attract and convince to stay voluntarily. Long term, that never works.)