Paper long abstract:

The questions surrounding whether skilled migration is good or bad for emerging nations is the wrong question, as without a doubt some level of migration is beneficial. The emerging and critical questions pertaining to migration and development for emerging nations is, whether such migration would be better off with limited accessibility. The answer to this depends on who is migrating: young or old, highly skilled or lowly skilled persons looking to develop or use their skills and talents, whether or not they return back home and when and how they return. What are the socio-political and development implications of brain-drain on departing nations? Evidence shows that in many emerging nations, migration rates are already above the point of peak benefits; these migrant nations are hemorrhaging their scarce human resources in favor of the West. In Nigeria, programs such as the United Kingdom's 2002 to 2008 Highly Skilled Migrant Program, US lottery and more recently, the Canadian Express Entry Programme for highly skilled persons is draining Nigeria of its relevant human resource; educated Nigerians. This study investigates the impact of highly skilled migration on healthcare in Nigeria by using mixed methods of first and secondary data to assess the following:

(a) who is leaving

(b) where the destination of choice is and

(c) what the impact is for the Nigerian.

The hypothesis is: highly skilled migration from poor to rich nations hinders development for the developing nation. To test this, we analyzed data on health workers from the highly skilled migrant records from 2012 to 2018. It considers the relationship between this migrating demography and the human capital challenge of healthcare. Secondly, we assess the factors prompting mass migration for this class of persons. Lastly, it adds new knowledge to the existing body of work by drawing a meta-narrative on the implication of this medical brain drain on Nigeria's development.