Impact of migration of Sri Lankan professionals to Qatar on skill acquisition and brain drain

ABSTRACT

Since the boom in the economies of Gulf countries in the mid-1970s, the region has gradually become an appealing destination for professional migrants. In the Gulf, professionals gain skills and knowledge which could be beneficial for their home countries. However, the majority of studies on professional migrants have only focused on those who migrate to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. This study on Sri Lankan professional migrants to Qatar attempts to address this dearth in literature by assessing the skills and long-term plans of Sri Lankan professionals in Qatar. The study is based on primary data gathered via in-depth interviews and an online survey of 125 Sri Lankan professionals based in Qatar. Drawing on the concepts of brain drain and brain gain and using a mixed-method analysis, the study identifies that the enhancement of communication, technical, managerial and other skills and the exposure to cutting-edge technologies by Sri Lankan professionals in Qatar are valuable for Sri Lanka. The study also identifies that the majority of Sri Lankan professionals in Qatar have prolonged their stay in the country. Moreover, a significant number of these professionals intend to migrate to OECD countries permanently without returning to Sri Lanka, which prevents the country from benefiting from their skills.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration
• brain-drain
• brain-gain
• Sri Lanka
• Gulf region

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 37 member states. In general, OECD countries are high-income nations with high Human Development Index ranks and are categorised as developed nations.

2. The GCC region includes six nations; Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.

3. SLBFE data vastly underestimates the total number of professional migrants (especially those to OECD countries) as it only includes migrants who have registered with the SLBFE and approximations of migrants who have sought employment abroad through direct means computed through pre-departure immigration procedures (Arunatilake et al., 2011). Migrants who register with the SLBFE are mostly domestic, unskilled and semi-skilled workers seeking employment in the Middle-Eastern countries. Most professionals emigrate under the general emigration laws of Sri Lanka and do not register with the SLBFE (International Organisation for Migration & Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, 2009).

4. At present, approximately fifteen million migrants are employed in the GCC region, out of which the majority are low-skilled workers. However, irrespective of the level of skills, all of these migrants are temporary contract workers. They are recruited for a limited time. The Kafala system, which is the arrangement employed by Gulf countries to regulate the influx of migrant workersensures that all migrants who immigrate to a Gulf nation for the purpose of employment have jobs in the GCC before leaving their home countries and that they leave their host Gulf nation at the end of their work contracts. There are no pathways to permanent settlement or citizenship in the GCC for ordinary migrants(Hvidt, 2016; Shehan, 2012).

5. Shaw (2006) refers to emigration rates beyond ten percent.

6. The emigration rate of professionals in certain African and Caribbean countries exceed 30% (Carrington and Detragiache; 1999).

7. This study defines a professional migrant as a migrant with at least two years of tertiary education in a given profession which is the most commonly used definition of professional migrants in migration literature and the basic definition of highly skilled migrants used by the International Organisation for Migration. All engineers and accountants in the sample have at least four years of university education. The majority of quantity surveyors have at least three years of tertiary education.

8. The Institute of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) – Qatar Chapter, the Institute of Charted Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICAS) – Qatar Chapter, Society of Sri Lankan Quantity Surveyors (SLQS) – Qatar.

9. As Qatar does not publicise data on total foreign population, Thiollet (2016)’s calculations are based on Qatar census results and UN World Migration Stocks for 2010.

10. On 5June 2017, four Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt) imposed trade and travel restrictions on Qatari citizens and residents and withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar leading to a diplomatic crisis in the Gulf region. At the time of writing, the issues between Qatar and the opposing party were still unresolved with no changes to the embargoes expected in the foreseeable future.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anoji Ekanayake

Anoji Ekanayake is a research professional with research interests in labour migration, transnational communities, displacement and gender. She holds a BA with First Class Honours from the University of Peradeniya and a Masters in Development Studies from the University of Colombo. Her work has appeared in international outlets such as Migration and Development, and conference proceedings of various universities. She is currently working as a Research Assistant in the Migration and Displacement Stream of the Gender, Justice and Security Hub of the London School of Economics (LSE) funded by UK Research and Innovation Global Challenges Research Fund (UKRI GCRF).

Kopalapillai Amirthalingam

Kopalapillai Amirthalingam is a Professor in Economics attached to the Department of Economics, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He works both as a researcher and development consultant with a special interest in migration, displacement, public finance and Sri Lankan economy. He is a Co-Director and member of the Executive Group of the Migration & Displacement Stream of the Gender, Justice and Security Hub of the London School of Economics funded by UK Research and Innovation Global Challenges Research Fund (UKRI GCRF). His work has appeared in leading journals such as Journal of Refugee Studies, Disasters, Migration and Development, Sri Lanka Economic Journal and Colombo Business Journal.