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commercial bank for a period of 32 years at a fixed deposit interest rate of 6.65% per
annum, the investment will grow to US$ 517,931. This is obtained by applying the
standard compounding formula: [(initial investment) ! (1+r) t ] = [US$ 65,997 !
(1+0.0665) 32 ]. Therefore, on average, for every doctor that emigrates, a country loses
about US$ 517,931. The economic loss incurred by Kenya as a result of the brain drain
of 167 medical doctors is US$ 86,494,477, i.e. 167 doctors ! US$ 517,931 per doctor.”
(cited in Kirigia & al., 2006)
Pakistan, which suffers from a medical staff shortage, has provided the US with around
10,000 of its medical graduates (Shafqat & Zaidi, 2007). Likewise, India and since 1951
has lost around 83,000 doctors to the States, which amounts to around US$3.6 - 5.0
billion lost in investment (Nayak 94 , 1996).
On the receiving end of migration, the United Nations Commission for Trade and
Development has estimated that each migrating African professional represents a loss of
$184 000 to Africa (Oyowe, 1996)…” The US Congressional Research Service, for
example, computed in 1971-72 that the USA gained $20 000 annually on each skilled
migrant from the developing countries. If this rather conservative amount is extrapolated
for Africa, then the continent lost more than $1.2 billion of investment between 1985 and
1990 on the 60 000 or so African professionals who emigrated during that period. Much
closer perhaps to the truth today would be the estimate made by the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), using 1979 prices, which put a cash
value of $184 000 on each African professional migrant (and this only for those between
the ages of 25 and 35) (Oyowe, 1996.)
However, immigration negatives can be reduced with the right policies. In a study of the
cost and benefits of the immigration of health workers on the economy of Malawi, a
group of researchers from Kings College London in the UK and from the Malawian
Ministry of Industry and Trade has suggested the following three points as a means to
turn the cost into benefits: (i) receiving countries could refund a part of what they receive
from the foreign doctors in form of taxes to the sending countries, (ii) the Malawian
country can charge for medical education in Malawi which could be overwritten if the
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