How South Korea can leverage brain drain to shore up its competitive edge.
A war for global talent has been raging throughout the twenty-first century. The competition to attract highly skilled manpower is becoming fiercer and fiercer among countries, as well as among corporations. Economic globalization has facilitated the movement of skilled workers, and the demand for foreign talent is highest in the most advanced countries, due to their low birth rates and aging populations. Seldom is this truer than in Korea, which has one of the most rapidly aging populations and lowest fertility rates.
It is challenging for a country like Korea, with an ethnically homogeneous population, to attract foreign talent.
However, it is challenging for a country like Korea, with an ethnically homogeneous population, to attract foreign talent when compared with the more cosmopolitan settler societies who have broader avenues for immigration and assimilation. In addition, Korea sends many bright young people for study abroad (e.g., the third largest number of international students to the United States, after China and India), with some of them never returning home. This phenomenon has understandably provoked intense debate over the question of brain drain among Korean experts and policy makers.
I, myself, am one of many Korean students who came to study in the United States and remained here well after graduation. More than three decades have passed since l left Seoul’s Yonsei University to pursue graduate studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. At the time, I had every intention of returning to Korea with an advanced degree. Yet I am still in the United States, teaching at an American college.
Am I a case of “brain drain” for Korea?
From a conventional human resources perspective, the answer is undoubtedly yes, since Korea lost an individual whom it had trained through college. Korea failed to reclaim me through “brain circulation,”—the process by which educated expats return to their home countries with advanced degrees, or foreign work experience, or international contacts, or some combination of all three. However, the point of view that my co-author and I advocate in Global Talent: Skilled Foreign Labor as Social Capital in Korea, this is not necessarily bad. My remaining in the U.S. can rather be seen as an example of “brain linkage,” since I work to bridge my home and host countries (i.e., Korea and the U.S.) in the academic and policy communities.
In the recent past Korea has focused on importing unskilled laborers from China and Southeast Asia to fill its labor shortage in undesirable “3D” industries. Now the competition for skilled labor has become intense in high-tech industries in Asia as well as in Silicon Valley, where I live. Many companies both here and in Korea have no choice but to import skilled foreign workers to address their human resources shortages. For example, more than half of the software engineers working at Samsung Electronics are foreigners.
However, non-settler countries like Korea and Japan that are characterized by strong ethnic nationalism are at a disadvantage in attracting foreign talent compared to settler societies such as the U.S., Canada, and Australia. In 2011, for instance, approximately 65% of the college‑educated workforce in Silicon Valley in the field of science and engineering was foreign‑born. Not surprisingly, the Global Talent Competitiveness Index released last November by INSEAD (France’s world-renowned graduate business school) places Japan and Korea 20th and 29th, respectively, in the overall rankings of 103 surveyed countries—disappointing ranking given their relative economic clout in the world. Moreover, the index ranks Japan and Korea 54th and 65th, respectively, in the “Attract” category, which measures the degree of openness to minorities and immigrants. In Korea’s case, the report describes these numbers as “significantly underperform[ing]” relative to the country’s overall score.
The results must be alarming for many in both countries, and show the need for a new, innovative approach to utilizing global talent. No matter how aggressively Japan and Korea try to attract foreign talent, they cannot prevail over settler countries that are more open to foreigners. What they need is a fresh approach that pays close attention to social capital, especially skilled labor’s role as “transnational bridges” in today’s global economy. The value of global talent lies in individuals’ overseas networks as much as in their skills and experiences.
Let’s take the case of Indian software engineers, who are in high demand in many advanced countries around the world. According to our study in the book, many of them are willing to work in Korea largely as a stepping-stone for their careers; most of them intend to leave Korea after three to five years to seek a position in a better working environment such as Silicon Valley. This is understandable given the social and cultural environments of Korea, which are not particularly receptive to foreigners.
From a conventional human resources perspective, Korea loses manpower as soon as those Indian engineers leave the country. However, if they leave with close ties to Korean society, they could be of considerable benefit to Korean corporations. If they connect Korea with their new host countries, they could facilitate technical cooperation and the acquisition of market information for their contacts back in Korea. Such benefits could potentially provide key competitive advantages in the world economy.
The same is true for foreign students studying in Korea. In 2013, the total number of foreign students studying in Korea neared 90,000, with 88% from developing Asian countries such as China, Mongolia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand. These students often chose to study in Korea to learn about its development model or because of the gravitational attraction of its popular culture. If they find jobs in Korea after graduation they would offer valuable human resources there. Even if they return home, however, they can continue to bridge Korea and their home countries in a wide variety of fields. Such bridges would be important assets for Korea.
The Korean diaspora can be useful in the same way. Although not many high quality workers desire jobs in their ancestral motherland (i.e., Korea), their international networks can be highly beneficial even if they remain overseas. Korea can learn from Israel, which has been effectively utilizing the outstanding talent of its diaspora community without bringing them home, largely through a program called “Birthright Israel.” This program brings young adults of the Jewish diaspora to stay in Israel for a short time and experience Jewish traditions and culture, thereby helping them re-establish their identity. Although they might not actually end up working in Israel, they nevertheless act as intermediaries between Israel and the countries in which they reside.
To succeed in the global war for talent, Korea and other similarly homogenous non-settler societies must reorient their current policies and strategies to overcome cultural and social disadvantage in foreign talent recruitment. No matter how hard they try to attract foreign talent, they cannot systematically win over settler countries that are more receptive to foreigners. Accordingly, they should go beyond trying to bring foreign talent home and appreciate its potential value as social capital. In particular, they should focus their efforts on establishing transnational bridges. As my personal situation illustrates, “brain drain” can in fact be converted into “brain linkage” whose value will only increase as the new war for global talent intensifies.
This blog post is modified from an earlier piece that appeared at the Nikkei Asian Review.
Gi-Wook Shin is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University and co-author with Joon Nak Choi of Global Talent: Skilled Foreign Labor as Social Capital in Korea.
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