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The part about marriage is very true. I take issue with your other part, though. I don't think his domain knowledge delivering medicine in Ghana is of very hig

by arjie 9y ago

The part about marriage is very true. I take issue with your other part, though. I don't think his domain knowledge delivering medicine in Ghana is of very high value. It is probably easily attained. That means that all the value of his going back to Ghana is provided on the basis of his education. This means that anyone with his education is a good candidate for the job. So why ask immigrants specifically to compensate for brain drain? Why shouldn't any of the people graduating from Johns Hopkins go to Ghana and solve their healthcare? Any of them would be needed much more there than in the US. Tying people to the country of their birth is nonsense. If it's utilitarianism we seek, let's send our infectious diseases experts over there. That's where they're needed. Not at the CDC.

yorwba 9y ago
> So why ask immigrants specifically to compensate for brain drain? They are already fluent in the local language(s), so they can be more effective right from the start. Of course that doesn't mean that others can't support them, even if they have no personal connection to the country.
arcticfox 9y ago
> If it's utilitarianism we seek, let's send our infectious diseases experts over there. That's where they're needed. Not at the CDC. Not really, it's a much better idea to have most of the experts at the CDC and simply send samples from Ghana. Then when the experts decide what to do, pay non-experts to implement it.
skybrian 9y ago
This argument treats local knowledge as worthless. Wouldn't most US graduates be more or less helpless there, without knowing the language or customs? At least in the short term, you'd need a guide and translator, which makes you a tourist (someone being taken care of for the money it brings) rather someone contributing through your work. A recent emigrant seems likely to have a more valuable combination of skills.
1024core 9y ago
> I don't think his domain knowledge delivering medicine in Ghana is of very high value. It is probably easily attained. That means that all the value of his going back to Ghana is provided on the basis of his education. This means that anyone with his education is a good candidate for the job. I disagree. It's much easier to give a person a 4-year education in something like Public Health Policy, than to give someone a 25-year education in language, culture, politics, etc. etc. And in the end, regardless of how hard you try, if you're a foreigner trying to do that job, you will never be trusted as "one of us" by the locals.

by arjie 9y ago

yorwba 9y ago

> So why ask immigrants specifically to compensate for brain drain? They are already fluent in the local language(s), so they can be more effective right from the start. Of course that doesn't mean that others can't support them, even if they have no personal connection to the country.

arcticfox 9y ago

> If it's utilitarianism we seek, let's send our infectious diseases experts over there. That's where they're needed. Not at the CDC. Not really, it's a much better idea to have most of the experts at the CDC and simply send samples from Ghana. Then when the experts decide what to do, pay non-experts to implement it.

skybrian 9y ago

This argument treats local knowledge as worthless. Wouldn't most US graduates be more or less helpless there, without knowing the language or customs? At least in the short term, you'd need a guide and translator, which makes you a tourist (someone being taken care of for the money it brings) rather someone contributing through your work. A recent emigrant seems likely to have a more valuable combination of skills.

1024core 9y ago

> I don't think his domain knowledge delivering medicine in Ghana is of very high value. It is probably easily attained. That means that all the value of his going back to Ghana is provided on the basis of his education. This means that anyone with his education is a good candidate for the job. I disagree. It's much easier to give a person a 4-year education in something like Public Health Policy, than to give someone a 25-year education in language, culture, politics, etc. etc. And in the end, regardless of how hard you try, if you're a foreigner trying to do that job, you will never be trusted as "one of us" by the locals.