Table of Contents

INTERNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION

Beyond Brain Drain: Possibilities and Challenges of Remitting Migrant Taxes

Damtew Teferra
Damtew Teferra is assistant research professor and founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Higher Education in Africa at the Center for International Higher Education, Campion Hall, Boston College, Chestnut Hill MA 02467, USA. E-mail: teferra@bc.edu.

African migrants around the world contribute to the economic, social, political, and educational development of their home countries, albeit largely in an unorganized manner. Currently, both the migrant communities and their respective home governments—which largely failed to contain their massive flow—are making efforts to maximize their impact. Governments of host countries, however, are yet to play a visible role in mobilizing the resources of migrant communities for the socioeconomic development of host countries. This article explores a new frontier to help revitalize higher education in Africa by proposing the channeling of a certain portion of taxes paid by migrants to their home countries.

Channeling Migrant Taxes
Numerous well—thought—out and poorly conceived initiatives have been taken to address the challenges of excessive flow of high—level experts—widely known as brain drain. While the effort to stem the tide of expert migrants continues, albeit with limited success, the interest to tap their resources is gathering momentum. Some countries, especially in Asia, are doing a good job of tapping and channeling the financial, technical, and intellectual resources of their migrant communities for the development of their universities and research institutions.

In a large number of countries, especially in Africa, a more coordinated and efficient way of tapping resources is woefully lacking. And yet, most African intellectual migrants in the North, who are graduates of public institutions at home, are keen to give back to their communities and play an important role in the socioeconomic development of their native countries.

Mobilization of resources from diverse sources is central to maintain the growing needs of higher education development. African institutions, which face chronic financial problems, are currently grappling with a variety of resource mobilization mechanisms. It should be cautioned that exploring the mobilization of diverse "nonpublic" resources should never be construed as either shifting or diminishing the responsibility of governments as the sole providers for the higher education sector. To reiterate, it must be unambiguously clear that government support to the higher education sector is critical and should never be diminished.

Massive brain drain has posed serious challenges to African socioeconomic development in general and higher education in particular. Virtually all views on brain drain dwell on the magnitude of the problem with limited perspectives on how to contain it. It has always been the case that the burden of addressing the challenge of brain drain has fallen on the losing countries.

Channeling to their home countries a certain portion of taxes already being paid by migrants, for the explicit purpose of higher education and research development, is a new frontier. This uncharted territory is, of course, predicated on the political goodwill of host governments.

Channeling tax monies of migrants, if implemented, has a tremendous potential benefit for many African universities. This proposal advocates the channeling to home countries (a percentage of) the host—country tax money already being paid by migrants.

Relevant Precedence?
The success of this initiative depends heavily on a strong political will and a sympathetic leadership. A major lesson can be drawn from a relevant initiative undertaken recently by France. In a laudable measure, which has around 70 supporters, France is imposing taxes on regional and international flights that will be channeled directly to international development aid. This became a reality, despite some resistance, due to strong backing of the top leadership in government.

Thus similar initiatives, as "ground breaking" as the one proposed here, could succeed if they have the full backing of those in power.

The Actions
What, therefore, are the underlying measures that need to be taken to implement this idea? Migrants need to actively lobby their host governments to participate in such an initiative. Their role in pushing the agenda, as taxpayers and members of the host communities, is critical. The role of organizations in host countries?such as the Africa—America Institute, TransAfrica Forum, and the UK—based African Foundation for Development—is paramount.

As potent internal forces, migrant communities need to inspire their host governments and their legislatures. They also need to publicize the idea through major public and academic media outlets. Working hand—in—hand with respective host governments, regional bodies, and home governments, the migrant communities can play a catalytic role in promoting the agenda from within and build constituency around it.

Home—country governments should work closely with their migrant communities on many fronts. They should put in place conducive policies to intensify the contributions of their migrants. Dual citizenship, for example, is the major one being considered in some African countries.

Regional and international organizations could also play an important role to help realize this initiative. Organizations such as the African Union, the Inter—Governmental Authority on Development, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa need to lobby, negotiate, and create awareness in mobilizing resources of migrant communities for development.

The Concerns
Countries that have been draining talent and skills on a massive scale will find redirecting migrant resources very attractive. It should, however, be cautioned that migrant communities themselves may resist such arrangements for fear of possible conflict with their own interests, employability, or status?directly or indirectly.

It is possible that some nationals may worry that employers?be it government or business?might discriminate against them, when and if they realize that their tax money would not be flowing to the national treasury. It is conceivable that some critical entities in host countries may thwart the initiative by, among other means, overblowing or even misrepresenting the initiative and causing some resistance from the migrants themselves.

The Issues
Such new ideas and proposals raise many questions. How significant is the migrant community (from potential beneficiary nations) to warrant such a policy initiative? What is the nature of political will in respective host countries to push such an agenda forward? Who might be potential political power brokers to help realize this concept? What existing forms of employment, tax, and other issues may pose a hurdle or foster the initiative? How should the matrix of the tax remittance be developed for the diverse nations from which migrants originate? What other forms of existing tax incentives need to be activated? Who should manage, govern, and oversee the funds and resources that may be generated? Who should monitor the flow of funds for their intended objectives? How should the funds be channeled: through existing or new forms of organizations? Which guarantees should be put in place to safeguard the resources from possible embezzlement and mismanagement? What mechanisms should be developed to give migrants a chance to opt in or out of the program? What provisions need to be developed for migrants who assumed citizenships of their host countries to participate in the program? These are a few of the details that need to be worked out.

Conclusion
Channeling tax monies to home countries of migrants to help build their knowledge institutions is simply an act of solidarity and fairness. Materializing such a grand scheme would essentially require the goodwill and commitment of host—country governments, regional and international institutions, Diaspora communities, and home countries.

[Online] Available: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number44//p8_Teferra.htm