Convenor
Anand Singh
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Co-covenors
Juan Jose Bustamante
University of Arkansas
Sophia Thubauville
University of Franfurt
Bobby Luthra Sinha
University of Basel
Abstract
As the world continues to reel backwards through widespread economic downslides and stagnant growth, the developed counties appear to be investing less in skills development and depending more upon the poaching of the highly skilled from developing countries. It is incumbent upon researchers to investigate the possibilities of how better endowed countries are taking advantage of poor leadership, endemic corruption, high taxation and political insecurities that reduce people’s hope and enthusiasm in the future of their countries of birth. The irony of the poaching from developing countries is that they have almost always been recipients of aid packages from the developed countries since the post-WWII era. Aid packages are, in the ideal sense of the development paradigm, are intended to build capacity through technical and professional expertise for the upliftment of the countries that agreed to them. But the loss of such expertise is continuing to the detriment of the skills base within the developing world. Evidence over the last half of the 20th century has shown that there is more political disagreement and division in the developing countries than there was prior to their independence.
Much of this discontent stem from opposition to their acceptance or rejection of these packages as debate around them brought about more dissension about their value to positive change. It was about introducing modernity and development. But most of the countries who were recipients of this are still mired in turmoil and unrest instead of settling down in circumstances of peace and tranquillity. While increasing numbers from the developing countries leave for employment and better living conditions in better developed countries, their countries of birth continue to suffer extensively from a shortage of skilled and professional expertise. While many of them migrate to make positive contributions to their newly adopted countries others follow them with sinister intentions – such as to deal with drug and human trafficking. Many expatriate communities are tainted with such images and become unwelcome migrants to these countries.
These situations therefore beg several significant questions about whether concepts such as ‘modernity’ and ‘development’ are mere buzzwords of the past? are developed countries deliberately allowing chaos in developing countries to fester in order to poach their expertise? which are the communities that are tagged with accusations of drug and human trafficking the most? to what extent do they constitute visible and contributory elements to such schemes? and to what extent are people from within the developed accessories to these patterns of migration? These issues are expected to contribute to the existing methodologies and theories that have explained and described how information has been elicited on these aspects.