Editor Pick – Brain Drain from Turkey: The Case of Professionals Abroad
“Over the past decade, Turkey has consistently ranked among the top ten sending countries in terms of the number of students studying in US higher education institutions. The number of Turkish students in the US grew to about 12,500 in the 2004-2005 academic year (Institute for International Education, 2005). According to UNESCO statistics, approximately 52,000 Turkish students studied abroad in 2004, mainly in Germany, USA, France and England, which made Turkey the 7th highest ranking country in terms of gross outflow of students for that year (UNESCO, 2006). UN sources also indicate that Turkey is 24th among countries sending skilled workers abroad.”
The quotation above comes from a new paper by Nil Demet Güngör and Nil Demet Güngör which addresses the issue of Turkish human capital migrating abroad. The authors investigate in detail the circumstances under which high skill Turkish human capital migrate without expectation of returning back to Turkey.
Turkey might be suffering a significant net loss of highly educated human capital. The brain drain migration phenomenon calls for policy measures that provide incentives to attract and keep highly educated Turkish workers.
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