Worth the stay

A nation that's safe and stable can attract the best foreign talent

MIGRATION is a fact of life. People move, from the village to the town, from the town to the city, from country to country, from job to job, seeking better or more opportunities in life and work, or to leave behind adverse conditions. This is how mankind has survived through the millennia, and thrived. Migration gives birth to multiculturalism and globalism. And even though it involves children of one land uprooting themselves to transplant themselves to another, the diaspora that is eventually formed is what later brings people from all over the world closer together.

Naturally, to a certain extent, migration does result in loss; seen from a national capacity-building perspective, migration can seem a negative thing, especially if a country loses what is considers to be its brainy citizens, and especially if its vision of development and advancement particularly requires brains. The challenge for any country, therefore, is how to attract more of the desired migration than it itself loses, or, at least, enough to maintain equilibrium. Some countries that manage to achieve desired-migration-nation status get more applicants than they can, or want, to accept, and this, thus, gives them the advantage and privilege to pick and choose whom they want to keep. Those that these countries discard then have to move on to lesser-desired countries: the dregs ending up in last-choice countries.

For developing countries, like Malaysia, the trick then is in ensuring that one's country is not in the lower rungs of migration choice. Many countries that want to attract positive migration offer incentives for people to come to their country. To a certain extent, these incentives will prove attractive, but only if the intended migrant had set his or her sights on that country in the first place. It is only in circumstances where all attractions are equal that incentives might tip the balance. But, the best of the best, the crème de la crème, the intellectuals and the talented, don't need incentives to get them where they want to be. They can fill in their own paperwork, find their own homes and schools for their children, and buy their own cars. What they, and anyone else, need, is a place to call home that is safe, ethical, humane, well-mannered, and progressive in the physical, philosophical, intellectual, political and social sense. A place where red tape is thin and can be cut by anyone, where opportunities are available to everyone of equal ability without discrimination, and where laws are in place to protect a person's human rights. In short, the kind of country that would attract not only outside talent to come in, but also inside talent to stay.

Worth the stay

A nation that's safe and stable can attract the best foreign talent

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