Brain Drain

In Vancouver we must have some of the best educated cab drivers in the world.  This trade is the default option for many professional immigrant men (no women, given that the South Asian countries they come from are way behind us when it comes to gender equality and gender parity).  One would never guess this given what awful drivers Vancouver cabbies tend to be.  We have Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers, Scientists, Lecturers, and many more of the crème de la crème of Indian and Pakistani society immigrating here to Canada, lured by the bait of a better life, human rights, political freedom and greater professional and employment opportunities and this is what they are greeted by: rules and regulations that state that no matter what they have paid or sacrificed for their advanced degrees and PhD's all their higher education is useless and none of their credentials are going to be recognized in this country.  At the tune of tens of thousands of dollars and four years of retraining they might get it right, get it lucky and get new credentials and maybe find work in their field.  It is not a promise.

For this reason we have cab drivers who once defended criminals in the highest courts, home support workers who once performed quadruple bypass surgery, and toilet cleaners who used to do root canals and crowns occupying the lowest sort of occupational levels at poverty wages.  They live at close quarters with family, extended family, friends and roommates while encouraging and fueling and competing against each other to do well, save money, earn enough for a down payment for a mortgage, enough to put aside to send home to their families in the Philippines or in El Salvador, put away money for their children's university education.  It has become popular legend that the children of immigrants do spectacularly well in university attendance and in the higher and highest paid professions.  The elephant in the room?  This kind of dynamic frenzied ambition, hard work and sacrifice always has a shelf life.  It is statistical fodder that the third generation's success level always falls to the level of the national norms.

Today I had a conversation with a co-worker, herself a new Canadian, and we agree that this siphoning of talent, of well-educated and gifted professionals from developing nations has turned into a brain drain.  This is a tragic and dreadful waste of talent that in the long term does nothing to serve anyone.  Pakistan loses dentists, China loses doctors, Mexico loses lawyers, these and other countries are professionally impoverished, and little or nothing happens here in beautiful Canada to channel their talents so they can really use their talents and education and credentials to enrich our country.

Is there a solution?  Probably not.  Immigration is always going to be necessary and for a whole variety of reasons.  I sometimes think that it's sad that we and other developed countries haven't been able to do more to assist other countries at strengthening their democratic institutions in order to provide enough infrastructure so that their own thinkers and professionals and artists can do more to build their own nations.  But that would create competition and Canada and other rich countries would have to agree to take in refugees and immigrants with lesser credentials.  And then they would be driving taxis, cleaning toilets and wiping geriatric bottoms for slave wages.

Anyone have any ideas that can provide alternatives to this cynicism?  Please leave a comment.