Science does not have a homeland, but the scientist does -- the land where they gave him a place in his profession; the home of his friends and family ... Every man has a tacit, unsigned commitment to help his country. His education has been made possible by the labors of the entire population -- who produced the resources that maintained him and supported the schools and universities. He should repay the people by devoting his highest efforts to the advancement of his country."
Man is basically an active being, if not, he's dead. It's a fact too that man has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. He moves from one place to another. The modern professional or technologist is no different from any other man, in his basic desire for movement or migration. Everyone wants a better life, a greener pasture.
Yet we talk of the problem of professional migration which is still existing in our country. This right of everyone to migrate to greener pastures would then give us social illness. But why does a professional migrate to another country if there are no reasons for his migration? Is it for better living? Is it for better training? Facing a more serious problem, is it because of the lack of employment opportunities that's why professionals migrate to other countries, mainly to Canada and to the U.S.A.?
With the rise in world population and the development of nationalism and ethnic consciousness in the people, immigration has become more selective, with marked preference for the highly-trained professionals, such as doctors, engineers, nurses, natural and social scientists.
Much has been said against the continued depletion of our country's brain resources. The outcry has been occasioned by the fact that these graduates of our universities and colleges have chosen to use their skills in foreign countries, instead of working in their country, which is still in the developing stage. To be sure, the criticism is valid, but the other side of the coin is just as valid.
To face the problem of brain drain or professional migration is to face a social problem of our country. When a country does not make use of its brain capital or when it forces its skilled people or professionals to migrate to other countries where better opportunities await them, it creates a crisis we now call the "brain drain." It is a crisis we are now experiencing in this country and it is a crisis approaching the catstrophic. It is perhaps our greatest waste.
Seemingly ingrained in the minds of a Filipino immigrant is the idea that the U.S.A. or Canada is the land of his heart's desire; that it is the foot of the rainbow where lies his treasure of gold, that the worst-paid doctor in America for instance is better paid than his fairly-well compensated counterpart in the Philippines.