Haiti's Brain Drain: 85 percent of Haitian College Graduates leave the country

Did I read this correctly? Eighty five percent of college graduates in Haiti leave the country. Talk about a brain drain!


Education in Haiti

When people leave a country that is called emigration. But when skilled individuals emigrate from a country like Haiti, that leads to loss of valuable human capital. That is called Haiti's brain drain.

What do OUR LEADERS have to do in order to get these Haitian college graduates to come back to Haiti to serve the nation?

85 percent? My goodness that's a lot.

Back in May 2012 when this article was originally published, I was reading this article on energy.aol.com with the title "An unlikely energy development opportunity emerges in Haiti." In the article, I stumbled onto a pagragraph addressing education in Haiti.

You know me, I am always looking for the little story inside the story.

The following is one of the paragraphs in the article:

"Education is also a major part of GEM's initiative and the lead phase of all project implementation will be education that will address the "brain drain" issue. Eighty five percent of college graduates in Haiti leave the country, he [as in Daniel Lemons, CEO of the GEM Institute] said. Part of the goal is to develop the indigenous engineering and project management expertise needed to operate and maintain the country's energy infrastructure over the long term."

So back in May 2012 it was already an issue that the brains of Haiti were leaving the country. If we dig deeper we'll find out that this has been going on for decades.

As of the last update of this article, July 2023, we see a plethora of Haitian brains living the country because of insecurity and gang violence.

This article addressed the lack of indigenous engineers needed to maintain Haiti's energy infrastructure. That was 2012.

In other words, in order for Haiti to become HI-TECH, we need lots of HIGH-TECH indigenous (native) brains to maintain a HIGH-TECH Haiti.

But how would we get that when we have people in power and a corrupt oligarchy who do nothing but chase away the smartest Haitians among Us?

You think this a joke?

Around the time does it this article was originally published , back in May 2012, the Haitian government was importing mechanics from Cuba!

This could only mean that the best and brightest Haitian mechanics have left the country to seek opportunity elsewhere.

Somebody need to start giving the diaspora an incentive to return home. I am not kidding.

When you factor in the generation of proffessionals of Haitian descent born and raised outside of Haiti, the Haitian brain drain percentage jumps to a lot more than 85 percent.

If given the proper incentives, they would come back home. believe me, they would return to Haiti.

I've been gone since I was about 12 years old, I think I know what I am talking about.

Question: What do you think OUR LEADERS need to do to get these Haitian college graduates to come back to Haiti and be of service to the nation?

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All Comments (7)

Jane says...

I love your insight on cuutlres different from our own. Like many differences in culture, it's hard to say which facets of jealousy and covetousness are more detestable and dangerous.

The theft and blatant disregard for personal property in Haiti are easily identifiable sins, both of which find roots in jealousy.

Although repugnant, these acts are hard to hide from the public view and often easier to directly address.

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Herold says...

I would love to go back to Haiti and invest my time and money and some day retire there, but I cannot.

I was born in Haiti in 1959 and now a naturalized US citizen.

Because Haiti do not have a dual-citizenship policy I would have no rights there.

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Marcda says...

Se pa sitelman lajan an, min pa gin securite.

Mwen rimin peyi a et mwen tou ta vle retounin pou ede min ak chak nou pran nouvel se dega

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David Grant says...

In my estimation, there isn't much the government can do to lure those Haitians back to the country.

First of all, the government is unable to pay them the salary they are accustomed to; and secondly, the long term benefit they are expecting from their adopted countries is non existant in Haiti.

Incentives such as insurance, retirement benefit and so on and so forth are not obtainable in Hati; hence, the reluctance to come back. Perhaps, after they have secure all those securities, they will return.

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Etienne says...

That does not surprise me at all. Now the Haitian government needs to give them an incentive to lure them back to Haiti.

The brain drain will continue unless there is real change.

I am hopeful.

God bless

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Bernadette says...

This is nothing inherent to Haiti.

Young people all over the world when they cannot find jobs they migrated to other parts of the country or to other parts of the world.

If we want to keep our skilled workers, we have to create jobs to retain them otherwise they will continue to

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Stephanie Julien says...

nothing paske yo gen tro fon nan diaspora epi fok gen travay pou etudyan sa yo tounen si pa gen anyen nan peyi a tou normal poum

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