Skilled migration does not benefit sending countries...

The Nazis’ dismissal of Jewish scientists had a much greater negative impact on research output than did the wholesale destruction of buildings and equipment by allied bombers...

Written by Noah Carl.

In a recent viral tweet, Samo Burja wrote: “Few economists bite the bullet that if immigration is good for the countries gaining people, emigration is bad for the countries losing people.”

In response, the economist Noah Smith penned an article titled ‘Why skilled immigration (usually) benefits both countries’. Although “there might be a few cases in which we should actually be worried,” he notes, “there are both theoretical and empirical reasons to think that skilled emigration can help the economies of developing countries”. In other words, high-skilled emigration is not merely not harmful; it’s actively beneficial.