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Guyana is number 1 for college students fleeing their homeland

March 3, 2012
 

Human Capital Flight
By STABROEK STAFF | EDITORIAL | SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2012

Citizenship ceremonies in Canada and the United States are bittersweet occasions. Mixed with the joy of securing a foothold in the developed world, many newcomers are still struggling with unfamiliar languages and customs, minimum wage jobs, and inadequate accommodation within introspective ethnic enclaves. Even when these obstacles have been overcome there is still the longer task of establishing a hybrid identity within societies that often view outsiders with suspicion or hostility, and the mixed blessing of watching children assimilate to the new country with little sense of their parents’ ancestral homes. Many newcomers also have extended families waiting in the wings, hoping to be summoned to the imagined luxuries of life in North America. With all of this hanging over them, many immigrants become citizens with an equal measure of pride and anxiety.

 

Five years ago a World Bank study found that seven of the ten countries with the highest emigration rates for college students were in the Caribbean. Guyana held the unenviable top spot with a jaw-dropping 89 per cent. Those rates and the flight of human capital they indicate, the so-called ‘brain-drain,’ have undoubtedly worsened since, even though immigration to Europe, North America and elsewhere has become far more difficult. Two years ago another World Bank report found that nearly three-quarters of the nurses trained in the anglophone Caribbean end up working in the Britain, Canada or the United States.

 

The main reason for the brain-drain is obvious enough: highly skilled workers in the developing world earn a fraction of the salaries available elsewhere. Furthermore, the demand for their skills is always growing since countries that actively recruit skilled foreigners get talent, essentially, for free. From an economic perspective, targeted immigration is a form of outsourcing the education of hundreds of thousands of professionals. In fact, many developmental economists believe the savings developed countries accumulate through ‘human capital flight’ far exceed their aid budgets. This relationship will continue as long as the American dream remains intact. Last November, in a Munk Debate on “high unemployment and slow growth in North America,“ the risk analyst and political consultant Ian Bremmer pointedly asked: “Does it matter that millionaires in China, over 50% of them, want to live in the United States – not just send their kids over there, but actually live there? Yes, it does. Does that attraction of entrepreneurship and talent make a difference to the United States? Of course it does.”

 

Immigrants replenish aging societies with workers that contribute billions of tax dollars for parts of the welfare state that would otherwise falter, or collapse. (Just a week ago, census data in Canada indicated that two-thirds of population growth is driven by immigration. This figure is expected to rise to 80 per cent within 20 years.) Immigrants also bring diversity and cultural complexity to many mature democracies. Wherever ethnic identities jostle each other peacefully, they inevitably create new ways of doing business, new forms of culture, and even ways of practising politics and social justice. This benefits everyone. Perhaps a simpler way of measuring the benefits of assimilation is food: 20 years ago it was possible to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at a different ethnic restaurant in Manhattan without returning to the same location for 11 years. Today that diversity is probably even greater. Who wouldn’t wish to live in such a cosmopolitan environment?

 

Given the odds stacked against us, what can countries like Guyana do? The online journal Inside Higher Ed recently profiled the efforts of two Guyanese – Paloma Mohamed and Vibert Cambridge – to tackle this question. To date, a key part of their success in reinvigorating tertiary education at the University of Guyana has been the use of contracts that oblige faculty members who earn foreign graduate degrees to repatriate their skills for a minimum of five years. This eminently sensible measure ought to be considered for all forms of skilled labour. Not only does it cleverly tweak the model of outsourcing education on behalf of wealthier countries, but it provides an opportunity for smaller countries chance to catch up on intellectual capital and best practices relatively quickly and inexpensively. This exchange is far more rewarding than the billions wasted annually on well-intentioned but impractical developmental aid. Human capital will always remain highly mobile in a globalized world, but throughout the Caribbean we can and should do much more to make use of our highly skilled workers before they seek a better life elsewhere.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:

So when you coming back to join us and develop the country? 

Why should we when you folks back home are galloping out of the country as if a jumbie is chasing you?????!!!!!

FM

Jumbie chased YOU. Plenty of them in New York. And you what you enjoy that cold and ice as you think of beautiful Guyana. But you can't leave because you are stuck in the system.

FM
Originally Posted by caribny:
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:

So when you coming back to join us and develop the country? 

Why should we when you folks back home are galloping out of the country as if a jumbie is chasing you?????!!!!!

Sugrim doesn't live in Guyana.

Mitwah

As I mentioned to you dunces many times over, Guyana is primarily a mining and agricultural economy. Those seeking a career outside these sectors will invariably migrate. Also notable is the fact that only a handful of  careers in the mining and agricultural sectors require a college degree. The major requirement is brawn and savvy to dodge the afc/pnc crew intent on robbing you of your hard earnings.

FM
Originally Posted by Mitwah:
Originally Posted by caribny:
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:

So when you coming back to join us and develop the country? 

Why should we when you folks back home are galloping out of the country as if a jumbie is chasing you?????!!!!!

Sugrim doesn't live in Guyana.

 

Sugrim rocking in he hammock and drinking coconut water as you write you stuff. And you know what he aint short of money. He made it the honest way. So he just throw back and enjoying life. You guys keep working til you drop over there. Remember there is something call stress. 

FM
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:

Jumbie chased YOU. Plenty of them in New York. And you what you enjoy that cold and ice as you think of beautiful Guyana. But you can't leave because you are stuck in the system.

Yes the jumbies roaming around Guyana chased me and they are still chasing bright Guyanese away.

 

Dont worry its us in the snow and ice that provide the largest source of foreign exchange that allows you to think that Guyana is beautiful.

FM
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:
So he just throw back and enjoying life. You guys keep working til you drop over there. Remember there is something call stress. 


yes man while Guyanese in Bdos, Tdad, USA, Canada and even St KItts work hard to support you all.  You laze in hammocks living off of our sweat.

 

What laziness!!!!

 

Imagine the stress if one day overseas Guyanese stop sending money and your economy implodes by at least 25% as a result.

 

You will have to gte out of that hammock and figure out how to pay your own bills.

 

And dont rant about how nobody sends you money.  Those who get money from family overseas spend it within Guyana and much of the real estate construction is funded by those of us living elsewhere.

 

Remittances, and gold and some rice.  Thats all you have down there...and in that order of importance.

FM
Originally Posted by BGurd_See:

As I mentioned to you dunces many times over, Guyana is primarily a mining and agricultural economy. Those seeking a career outside these sectors will invariably migrate. Also notable is the fact that only a handful of  careers in the mining and agricultural sectors require a college degree. The major requirement is brawn and savvy to dodge the afc/pnc crew intent on robbing you of your hard earnings.

druggies excuses.  You just dont want to live in Guyana as you know life is miserable there unless you are a PPP big wig.

 

No wonder the kids all want to flee, even to Nevis where they are treated like stray dogs upon arrival at the airport (see letter in KN about discrimination against Guyanese in SK/N). 

 

 If Guyana was so nice they wouldnt put up with such treatment.  And you would have some IT company in Guyana.

FM
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:
Originally Posted by Mitwah:
Originally Posted by caribny:
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:

So when you coming back to join us and develop the country? 

Why should we when you folks back home are galloping out of the country as if a jumbie is chasing you?????!!!!!

Sugrim doesn't live in Guyana.

 

Sugrim rocking in he hammock and drinking coconut water as you write you stuff. And you know what he aint short of money. He made it the honest way. So he just throw back and enjoying life. You guys keep working til you drop over there. Remember there is something call stress. 

So how is your laziness supporting GDP? Remittances is an honest way to accumulate money. I see you are not as smart as Albert, Rev, Conscience et al who are paid by the PPP to blog.

 

People who live in GUyana do not write in the third person. Anyway go back to your hammock and sleep in ignorance.

Mitwah

the ppp have some real stupid people on this site or i guess they have no shame maybe they should use those two chinese boatto bring more guyanese backtrack that is if they love the people they will help them run and what out for rohee he might send some drugs with the boat

FM
Originally Posted by warrior:

the ppp have some real stupid people on this site or i guess they have no shame maybe they should use those two chinese boatto bring more guyanese backtrack that is if they love the people they will help them run and what out for rohee he might send some drugs with the boat

The funny thing is, it is the PPP elitists who are sending their children abroad for tertiary education and more than 50% of them have homes in Canada and the USA and we have a dunce like Ronald Sugrim rocking in hammock and drinking coconut water.

Mitwah
Originally Posted by caribny:

druggies excuses.  You just dont want to live in Guyana as you know life is miserable there unless you are a PPP big wig.

 

No wonder the kids all want to flee, even to Nevis where they are treated like stray dogs upon arrival at the airport (see letter in KN about discrimination against Guyanese in SK/N). 

 

 If Guyana was so nice they wouldnt put up with such treatment.  And you would have some IT company in Guyana.

As I mentioned to you many times before, these same fools running to Nevis and other nations can make a fortune in the mining sector. If the Brazilians can make a fortune in Guyana so can native Guyanese.  When I was in Jamaica and St Lucia, they natives were asking me if they could come to Guyana and mine for gold.  So it is foolish for Guyanese to run to these islands even if they are doing skilled labor, when el dorado beckons. ahahahahah 

FM
Originally Posted by BGurd_See:
Originally Posted by caribny:

druggies excuses.  You just dont want to live in Guyana as you know life is miserable there unless you are a PPP big wig.

 

No wonder the kids all want to flee, even to Nevis where they are treated like stray dogs upon arrival at the airport (see letter in KN about discrimination against Guyanese in SK/N). 

 

 If Guyana was so nice they wouldnt put up with such treatment.  And you would have some IT company in Guyana.

As I mentioned to you many times before, these same fools running to Nevis and other nations can make a fortune in the mining sector. If the Brazilians can make a fortune in Guyana so can native Guyanese.  When I was in Jamaica and St Lucia, they natives were asking me if they could come to Guyana and mine for gold.  So it is foolish for Guyanese to run to these islands even if they are doing skilled labor, when el dorado beckons. ahahahahah 

Silly man, do you think artisanal mining is good for us? Guyana is still without any ability to control or supervise these miners. They will leave us an arsenic and cynaide and mercury poisoned nation. Short term gains ( mining does nothing for the economy since most of the gold is smuggled out) will be our long term ruin. You most certainly do not find this sufficient lure given you are used to the comfort and ease of suburban life.

FM
Originally Posted by BGurd_See:
Originally Posted by caribny:

druggies excuses.  You just dont want to live in Guyana as you know life is miserable there unless you are a PPP big wig.

 

No wonder the kids all want to flee, even to Nevis where they are treated like stray dogs upon arrival at the airport (see letter in KN about discrimination against Guyanese in SK/N). 

 

 If Guyana was so nice they wouldnt put up with such treatment.  And you would have some IT company in Guyana.

As I mentioned to you many times before, these same fools running to Nevis and other nations can make a fortune in the mining sector. If the Brazilians can make a fortune in Guyana so can native Guyanese.  When I was in Jamaica and St Lucia, they natives were asking me if they could come to Guyana and mine for gold.  So it is foolish for Guyanese to run to these islands even if they are doing skilled labor, when el dorado beckons. ahahahahah 

You ran away and why do you continue to live a life of misery in New Jersey?

 

Afraid to give up your food stamps and grave digging?

Mitwah
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:

It is foolish for Guyanese to run but that is what you did. We sticking it out. Yes people do actually live here and enjoying it. Fresh fish every day. Make it 3 times a day.

If you were living in Guyana, you would know about the story of the Mermaid and that the fishes have worms.

Mitwah
Originally Posted by Mitwah:
Originally Posted by BGurd_See:
Originally Posted by caribny:

druggies excuses.  You just dont want to live in Guyana as you know life is miserable there unless you are a PPP big wig.

 

No wonder the kids all want to flee, even to Nevis where they are treated like stray dogs upon arrival at the airport (see letter in KN about discrimination against Guyanese in SK/N). 

 

 If Guyana was so nice they wouldnt put up with such treatment.  And you would have some IT company in Guyana.

As I mentioned to you many times before, these same fools running to Nevis and other nations can make a fortune in the mining sector. If the Brazilians can make a fortune in Guyana so can native Guyanese.  When I was in Jamaica and St Lucia, they natives were asking me if they could come to Guyana and mine for gold.  So it is foolish for Guyanese to run to these islands even if they are doing skilled labor, when el dorado beckons. ahahahahah 

You ran away and why do you continue to live a life of misery in New Jersey?

 

Afraid to give up your food stamps and grave digging?

He  is not on food stamps and does not dig graves so lets not follow the rest of these despicable human being s into characterizing others. 

 

The picture of him in the grave yard is him stupidly allowing himself to be used by white people to depict the hapless Spanish immigrant coming to the land of milk and honey.  It is not the real him

 

I would certainly not let them use those props, old suit cases, misfitted suit and doorman jacket and hat to represent anyone. I cannot for the life of me know why they would want  represent a parishioner in that way.

 

Episcopalian churches in the US has an ongoing schism, the right wing version and the liberal one. It would not be too far south to suggest his church is of the first category.

FM
Originally Posted by Stormborn:
Originally Posted by Mitwah:
Originally Posted by BGurd_See:
Originally Posted by caribny:

druggies excuses.  You just dont want to live in Guyana as you know life is miserable there unless you are a PPP big wig.

 

No wonder the kids all want to flee, even to Nevis where they are treated like stray dogs upon arrival at the airport (see letter in KN about discrimination against Guyanese in SK/N). 

 

 If Guyana was so nice they wouldnt put up with such treatment.  And you would have some IT company in Guyana.

As I mentioned to you many times before, these same fools running to Nevis and other nations can make a fortune in the mining sector. If the Brazilians can make a fortune in Guyana so can native Guyanese.  When I was in Jamaica and St Lucia, they natives were asking me if they could come to Guyana and mine for gold.  So it is foolish for Guyanese to run to these islands even if they are doing skilled labor, when el dorado beckons. ahahahahah 

You ran away and why do you continue to live a life of misery in New Jersey?

 

Afraid to give up your food stamps and grave digging?

He  is not on food stamps and does not dig graves so lets not follow the rest of these despicable human being s into characterizing others. 

 

The picture of him in the grave yard is him stupidly allowing himself to be used by white people to depict the hapless Spanish immigrant coming to the land of milk and honey.  It is not the real him

 

I would certainly not let them use those props, old suot cases, misfitted suit and doorman jacket and hat to represent anyone. I cannot for the life of me know why they would want  represent a parishioner in that way.

 

Episcopalian churches in the US has an ongoing schism, the right wing version and the liberal one. It would not be too far south to suggest his church is of the first category.

That picture was a good laugh.

 

Drugb, how much were you paid to pose in that picture?

Mitwah
Originally Posted by Mitwah:
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:

When punishment ketch you all bet you running back here with your tale of woes.We waiting to welcome you all. 

You don't live in Guyana.


 

You are free to your opinion. So when you coming back to live?

FM
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:
Originally Posted by Mitwah:
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:

When punishment ketch you all bet you running back here with your tale of woes.We waiting to welcome you all. 

You don't live in Guyana.


 

You are free to your opinion. So when you coming back to live?

 You are obviously not smart and without skills or talent.  The main reason for the brain-drain is obvious enough: highly skilled workers in the developing world earn a fraction of the salaries available elsewhere. Furthermore, the demand for their skills is always growing since countries that actively recruit skilled foreigners get talent...

 

 

Mitwah
Originally Posted by cain:

Mits, Drughie wasn't paid, he was told however that he could have the uniform,he was also told that he looked swell in it.

heheheheheh.... I wonder if he kept the suit case too.

Mitwah
Originally Posted by Mitwah:
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:
Originally Posted by Mitwah:
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:

When punishment ketch you all bet you running back here with your tale of woes.We waiting to welcome you all. 

You don't live in Guyana.


 

You are free to your opinion. So when you coming back to live?

 You are obviously not smart and without skills or talent.  The main reason for the brain-drain is obvious enough: highly skilled workers in the developing world earn a fraction of the salaries available elsewhere. Furthermore, the demand for their skills is always growing since countries that actively recruit skilled foreigners get talent...

 

 

Banna migration to industrial countries is predicated largely on economics which is better wages and a higher standard of living. Jagdesh Bhagwati and Sen and others have written extensively about this. A small country like Guyana cannot afford to export much-needed skills. It must increase wages and offer better conditions of work. But the cards are not stacked in its favor. Unfortunately, Guyana will continue to be a place where its talent will be exported. 

FM
Originally Posted by Stormborn:

Silly man, do you think artisanal mining is good for us? Guyana is still without any ability to control or supervise these miners. They will leave us an arsenic and cynaide and mercury poisoned nation. Short term gains ( mining does nothing for the economy since most of the gold is smuggled out) will be our long term ruin. You most certainly do not find this sufficient lure given you are used to the comfort and ease of suburban life.

Don't badmouth Guyana, Canada and US have major economies in many states based on mining while they allow pollution and destruction of the earth for short term gain. In Guyana at least they are trying to keep some semblance of control over pollution. But note whenever the govt put in new checks and balances, the AFC/PNC together with the mining sector protest as was the case recently when govt implemented rules requiring sampling before claims could be staked. 

 

From your armchair in the US you pronounce that mining does noting for the economy, meanwhile wealth and employment is being created on a massive scale in Guyana while gold declarations have gone up year over year. True there is smuggling of gold to Suriname where those creeps require less royalty thus encouraging the smuggling. However that is something that can not be prevented by enforcement, the wiser the govt the smarter the population.  

FM
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:
Originally Posted by Mitwah:
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:
Originally Posted by Mitwah:
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:

When punishment ketch you all bet you running back here with your tale of woes.We waiting to welcome you all. 

You don't live in Guyana.


 

You are free to your opinion. So when you coming back to live?

 You are obviously not smart and without skills or talent.  The main reason for the brain-drain is obvious enough: highly skilled workers in the developing world earn a fraction of the salaries available elsewhere. Furthermore, the demand for their skills is always growing since countries that actively recruit skilled foreigners get talent...

 

 

Banna migration to industrial countries is predicated largely on economics which is better wages and a higher standard of living. Jagdesh Bhagwati and Sen and others have written extensively about this. A small country like Guyana cannot afford to export much-needed skills. It must increase wages and offer better conditions of work. But the cards are not stacked in its favor. Unfortunately, Guyana will continue to be a place where its talent will be exported. 

At the same time, how can Guyana afford lazy people like you who sit all day in the hammock and drink water coconut? I now see why you are not part of the brains that were exported.

 

Enjoy your barrels and remittances, the fringe benefits from the export of skills and talents.

Mitwah
Originally Posted by BGurd_See:
Originally Posted by Stormborn:

Silly man, do you think artisanal mining is good for us? Guyana is still without any ability to control or supervise these miners. They will leave us an arsenic and cynaide and mercury poisoned nation. Short term gains ( mining does nothing for the economy since most of the gold is smuggled out) will be our long term ruin. You most certainly do not find this sufficient lure given you are used to the comfort and ease of suburban life.

Don't badmouth Guyana, Canada and US have major economies in many states based on mining while they allow pollution and destruction of the earth for short term gain. In Guyana at least they are trying to keep some semblance of control over pollution. But note whenever the govt put in new checks and balances, the AFC/PNC together with the mining sector protest as was the case recently when govt implemented rules requiring sampling before claims could be staked. 

 

From your armchair in the US you pronounce that mining does noting for the economy, meanwhile wealth and employment is being created on a massive scale in Guyana while gold declarations have gone up year over year. True there is smuggling of gold to Suriname where those creeps require less royalty thus encouraging the smuggling. However that is something that can not be prevented by enforcement, the wiser the govt the smarter the population.  

As usual you are speaking from ignorance rather from a position of personal understanding. The US and Canada has strict regulation of heavy metals and toxic chemicals and arsenic. There is also strict monitoring of water turbidity. There are also strict regulation of artisanal mining on state and federal lands and absolute prohibitions on doing so on tribal lands.The cost to benefit ratio for Guyanese in the long term with these odious practices of unregulated mining can only bode ill for the nation.

FM
Originally Posted by Billy Ram Balgobin:

Stormy,

 

Dem boys like B-Gurd a frig-u-up real bad on this forum.  Is wuh gaing on?

I guess "dem boys" equate to the ghosts in your head plus Al and Yui who throw celebratory confetti even on their racist rants. Drugb never ever knows of what he speaks. He takes the anecdotal and attaches to it the qualification of certitude. He never cross checks his facts. That is his recipe. Alas it is never palatable.

FM

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