Manama: Algeria’s president has called for a reverse brain-drain, promising to pay his fellow citizens now abroad the same salaries given by US universities.
"We must change the current policy because the Western universities reap what Algeria sows. It is high time we gave university professors and scientists their rights. I do understand that every Algerian citizen, from the simple employee to the president, wants a raise in his salary, and this of course is impossible. However, higher education professors, particularly researchers and scientists, do deserve higher salaries," Abdul Aziz Bouteflika said.
"I urge Algerian brains to come home and they will get the same pay they are now getting in the US. They will have the special pay thanks to their knowledge as we have to be fair. We cannot for instance give Einstein the same pay as a simple university teacher," Bouteflika said as he opened the new academic year at Ferhat Abbas University in Setif, 300 km east of Algiers, the capital.
According to a study published last month by Vivek Wadhwa, a visiting scholar at UC-Berkeley, senior research associate at Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University, there is now a reverse brain drain from the US to India and China.
Thousands of Indians and Chinese have for instance left Silicon Valley, "a place that remains the hottest hotbed of technology innovation on Earth" to return home, the study said.
"These workers returned in their prime: the average age of the Indian returnees was 30 and the Chinese was 33. They were really well educated: 51% of the Chinese held masters and 41% had PhDs. Among Indians, 66% held masters and 12% had PhDs. These degrees were mostly in management, technology, and science. Clearly these returnees are in the US population’s educational top tier - precisely the kind of people who can make the greatest contribution to an economy’s innovation and growth," the study said.
"And it isn’t just new immigrants who are returning home, we learned. Some 27% of the Indians and 34% of the Chinese had permanent resident status or were US citizens. ... What propelled them to return home? Some 84% of the Chinese and 69% of the Indians cited professional opportunities. And while they make less money in absolute terms at home, most said their salaries brought a 'better quality of life' than what they had in the US. When it came to social factors, 67% of the Chinese and 80% of the Indians cited better "family values" at home. Ability to care for aging parents was also cited, and this may be a hidden visa factor: it is much harder to bring parents and other family members over to the US than in the past. For the vast majority of returnees, a longing for family and friends was also a crucial element. A return ticket home also put their career on steroids. About 10% of the Indians polled had held senior management jobs in the US. That number rose to 44% after they returned home. Among the Chinese, the number rose from 9% in the US to 36% in China," the study said.
