Brain drain can’t be stopped by legislation

A bill has been filed in Congress seeking to stop skilled Filipino workers, like pilots, doctors and aircraft mechanics from leaving the country. It is as if this brain drain can be stopped by passing a law. If our legislators really and honestly want to stop the brain drain, they have to stop all their foolishness and work to make this country a better place to live in.

Of course, that’s not going to happen soon. Our legislators are very much a big part of the problems driving our professionals and skilled workers out of the country. Given their mentality, our legislators will think it is easier to just pass a simplistic law. But two questions come to mind: 1) can it be implemented? 2) is it constitutional?

I can fully understand why a congressman filed that bill. It is scary to think of a future without all our good doctors, all our good pilots and all our good aircraft mechanics among other professionals. But why should they be punished for wanting to have a better life abroad? It is absolutely unjust for government to stop them from leaving.

People, specially our officials, must understand that in this age of globalization, migration of labor follows the flow of market forces. Globalization is not only about the free flow of goods but the free flow of labor as well. Our predicament is not unique. Recently, Poland also raised some alarm over the same concern as its best professionals move to the United Kingdom and other EU countries where they can be paid a lot more for their skills.

The situation in Poland is eerily familiar. Experienced welders, electricians, other skilled craftsmen and including doctors and dentists have taken advantage of Poland’s membership in the European Union to relocate where there is a potential for higher earnings. A Polish personnel director told the Financial Times they "feel the effects of the opening up of the European labor markets because we have to compete in terms of job offers not only with other Polish employers but with, for example, those in Britain and Ireland."

The problem strikes both ways. Globalization of labor has also caused some Western countries on the receiving end, some problems. All of a sudden, the price of local labor can be checked against the global price. Labor unions in France and Germany, for instance, woke up to the reality that they are being priced out of the market. Political pressure is exerted on governments to stem the tide of migration. But all that is going to be in vain.

The days when we can pay a fully trained doctor P10,000 a month (or less than a call center worker) to serve in a government hospital are over. The global price for the services of a doctor is in multiples of that. Or, worse, the global price of a nurse or even a caregiver abroad is more than what we pay our doctors. No wonder our doctors are leaving for abroad even if it means demoting themselves to becoming a nurse or a caregiver.

The same goes for airline pilots and airline mechanics. There is a global price for those with certified skills to be pilots and mechanics. Sooner rather than later, Filipinos with those skills will demand to be paid the global rate or they will leave local employment to be paid that rate abroad. We may ban recruiters from coming here to poach from local employers but in this age of the Internet, it should be easy enough to recruit without even stepping foot here.

I guess, we just have to be resigned to the need to adjust to the reality of global pricing for the services of those whose skills are in demand. Even if a law was passed to stop our professionals from accepting higher paying jobs abroad, there is no way we can stop those who are determined to get global paying jobs abroad from leaving the country, anyway.

The only sane strategy for government is to invest even more on education so that we have enough people with the high value skills to constantly take the place of those who go abroad. The curious thing is, even if all our skilled workers find jobs abroad, we would still have a serious unemployment problem here. That’s the situation too in Poland. Despite the outcry against the brain drain now being heard, some three million Poles are still jobless.

I want to think it isn’t as bad as it looks because presumably, those who do go abroad would now have enough earning capacity to invest on their children’s education and training too. Exposure to world class companies should also come in handy when these professionals eventually come home, as most of them do.

It is unfortunate our politicians are prone to grandstand like that congressman who wanted to impose a ban on brain drain. It is similar to one of our late presidents who wanted to repeal the law of supply and demand. Now, a congressman, who has not heard of globalization, wants to curtail the constitutional right of our skilled workers to travel and pursue happiness by earning more abroad.

I suppose that sort of thing happens because Congress had always suffered from a brain drain problem ever since I could remember. I wonder what’s next? I hope a global demand for stupid politicians comes up so we can export them.

Tiger Airways

I got this e-mail that underscores the need for the CAB to be careful in whimsically canceling flights and also the need for all airlines operating here to have a local brick and mortar office and not just a website, to respond to consumer needs.

I am a housewife and a regular reader of your article. I appreciate your business column greatly and your ending jokes usually lighten up my day (most of them at least).

Last month, you wrote an article about one of your readers who was terribly inconvenienced and emotionally affected by the plight of Pinoy passengers bound for Manila(Clark) at the Macau International airport. This was all due to the cancellation of the Tiger Airways Jan. 10, 2006 flight.

Back here at the Clark International Airport at that same date, my husband, my balikbayan son, balikbayan sister-in-law and I were part of the many passengers (businessmen, tourists, and OFWs) who were inconvenienced by that same cancellation, not to mention the irreversible financial losses we suffered from our credit cards due to online hotel reservations we made in Macau and Hong Kong for our 4-day vacation.

I was really thankful to have read your article. I know that you tried to make queries in order to help your reader. On my part, I wrote an e-mail to Tiger Airways and backed it up with a hardcopy sent through their P.O.Box at Changi in Singapore. It’s been a month now and we have not received any official communication/reply from them.

My relatives in the US are pressing for an update/explanation and I feel responsible to communicate any progress of this case to them. I hope you can help me. Thank you and more of God’s blessings on your writing.

My response: The moral lesson here is, never have full faith in high technology such as the Internet to buy airline tickets and reserve hotel rooms in this third world country. We aren’t in that stage of development yet.

Impossible

Here’s Dr. Ernie.

A married couple was having an argument while sitting in bed.

The wife said to her husband, "You’re impossible."

To which the husband replied, "No. I’m next to impossible."

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]