Brain drain or talent outflow is described as the migration of a highly qualified workforce (highly qualified migration). It is the migration of experts or human capital where it is usually a person who has completed a graduate or at least undergraduate study.
According to EMIR Research, 2 out of 10 or 20% Malaysians with tertiary education migrate and choose to advance the foreign economies. Aligned with Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 (SPV2030) in becoming a high income nation, Malaysia will need to develop, attract, and retain talent. The fact that talent is leaving Malaysia when Malaysia needs talent does not seem to sync up with this goal.
In the study of brain drain, the most cited reasons for its acceleration are the push factors in the emigrants’ countries and the pull factors in the developed countries that cause them to want to work overseas.
Concerns about the migration of Malaysia homegrown talents are influenced by these persisting internal and external issues. These are:
- Career prospects; and
- Quality of life.