The New-Age Imperialism: Perspectives from Developing Countries on the Exploitation of Highly Educated Workers

This chapter aims to explore the consequences of migration of highly educated people from developing countries (LDCs) to developed countries (DCs) such as Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. The migration of highly educated people is crucial to the development of the LDC economies, and any loss of them is detrimental to the LDCs. It is a fact that LDCs have a far greater need for the skilled individuals they educate than DCs, which often employ various strategies that facilitate the transfer (plunder) of these valuable assets of LDCs. DCs are well aware of the economic value of highly skilled labor and therefore make every effort to transfer them to their countries to serve their people. But what about the needs of developing country citizens? Who will defend and care for their interests? I call the existing global migration process of highly skilled people the “New-Age Imperialism” (NAI), and the countries benefitting from this process are called “Contemporary Imperialists” (CI). The critical question to which we seek an answer is that: Who needs more highly qualified labor input: developed countries or developing countries?