Can developing countries learn from Obama’s Immigration Policy?
Published Date: Wednesday, Feb 13, 2013
"Real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods, reduce bureaucracy and attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy," Obama said. This should be a wake up call for the planners of the developing countries. Though this is happening in practice always, there is intensive planning to attract selective group of skilled and entrepreneurial folk since last two decades.
The bureaucracies in the developing countries are the worst enemy of any progressive policies so far. Bureaucracy work best as more barriers than facilitator. Most of the time, the decisions are taken and executed without any systematic planning and understanding. This is the case with migration. The bureaucracy created problem in creating conducive environment for economic engagement of the skilled and entrepreneurial communities. This is still happening even after several countries liberalized their economy. Managing migration is the biggest challenge for everybody today and there is a greater need for bureaucratic reform. Though migration is a global issue today, certain countries have realized the potential of migrant people, though they facilitate selective migration.
Brain drain is still a very serious issue that is affecting many countries across the world working as a slow poison. This is further aggravated by the policies of the developed countries that have been very selective in selecting whom to receive and whom to reject. In the process the high skilled and entrepreneurial folk migrate to the developed countries leaving the skilled and semiskilled back home creating a very dangerous situation of unemployment and underemployment. This fuel the migration cycle further as the most sought after entrepreneurial create jobs abroad. Now the developing countries must realize that they have huge potential which needs proper management. The loss of entrepreneurial skills a great loss that any country can afford!