More and more qualified people are moving from poor to rich countries to fill vacancies in specialist areas like engineering, computing and medicine.  Some people believe that by encouraging the movement of such people, rich countries are stealing from poor countries. Others feel that this is only part of the natural movement of workers around the world. Do you agree or disagree?

The so-called ‘brain drain’ from poor to rich countries is now robbing poorer countries of essential personnel like doctors, nurses, engineers, and the trend is set to continue, if not to get worse. Some people say

this

movement of people around the

world

is not a new phenomenon. Migrant workers have always been attracted by

the wider

Suggestion

the wide

choice of employment and greater opportunity in major cities in their own countries and abroad. Recently, as the technological age has advanced and as richer countries find themselves with not enough workers to feed their development, they have had to run to other parts of the

world

to find the necessary manpower. Many richer European countries,

for example

, are now trying to attract skilled IT workers from my home country India by offering higher salaries than they could hope to earn at home. With the globalisation of the

world

economy, many people feel that the process cannot be stopped. Others, myself included, are of the opinion that measures should be taken to address the problem, by compensating poorer countries financially for the loss of investment in the people they have trained, like doctors and nurses. Admittedly,

this

may be cumbersome to administer, but an attempt could be made to get it off the ground. Another step, which in part has already begun to happen, is to use the forces of globalization itself. Western countries could encourage people to stay in their own countries by direct investment in projects like computer factories or by sending patients abroad for treatment, as is already happening. It is obviously difficult to restrict the movement of people around the

world

and it is probably foolish to try to stop it, but attempts should be made to redress the imbalance.