NEXT Canada, GRIT Ed.06, Brain Gain vs. Brain Drain - Magazine - Page 4
0
0
1
BRAIN
10
01 1
10010 1001
10010 1001
10101 1010
001 0010 10
0
00
01
10010 100
0010 10010 100
01 0101 10101 101
10 10010 10010 10
10
10 10010 10010
1
01 10101 10101
10010 100
0
0 10010 100
10 101
10101
0 10010
0
10
0
0 10010
10
0
10101
10
0010 100
100
101
0
0
1
0 10
0 10
1 10
DRAIN GAIN
CANADA’S SHIFT
Jainy Tong
Communications and Marketing Director,
NEXT Canada
WHAT IT MEANS
Brain drain and brain gain references the movement of skilled talent from their home country. Brain drain happens when talent moves
away from their home country to seek better opportunities, while
brain gain happens when talent moves to a country because there
are more attractive opportunities available. It’s really two sides of
the same coin - where one country experiences brain drain and
loses talent, the other country experiences brain gain and
benefits and grows.
THE PUSH AND PULL
0 10010 1
0 10010 1
10101
001
GRIT
101 10101
001 01001 01
001 01001 01
101 10101 10
01001 01001
01 01001 01001
01 10101 10101
01
1
0
0
1 01
v
1 01
1 10
1 01
01
10
VERSUS
010 1001
00
0010 010 1001
0101 101 1010
0010
00
0010 10
0101 10
4
001 01001
101 10101
1001 01001
1001 01001
0101 10101
001 01001
001 01001
101 10101
001 01001 010
001 01001 010
101 10101 10
1001
01 10
With talent and innovation being some of
the key pillars to success, it becomes a bit of
a competition for each country to attract the
best brains in the world. A number of factors impact the level of brain drain and brain
gain a country experiences, some which will
push talent away and some which will pull talent in. Factors include, but aren’t limited to;
immigration policies, quality of education,
employment rates and perceived quality of
life. In the tech ecosystem, access to capital
and networks also play a vital role in pulling
in talent.
Until recently, brain drain has been a challenge for Canada, with one
study, published in 2018, stating that two thirds of recent software engineering
graduates moved to the USA after graduating from top Canadian universities1.
It’s evident that American tech companies love our Canadian graduates and
they’ve been able to pull Canadian talent away for some time now.
However, there are signs that this trend may shift and Canada may be
on the path to retaining more of our highly-skilled talent. In the past
few years, Canadian-grown companies such as; Ada, Clearco, Shopify
and Wattpad, have made global waves in the tech community, and
people are taking notice. In 2021 alone, tech companies such
as; Netflix, Wayfair, and Cloudflare announcing new Canadian headquarters.
CBRE’s 2021 Scoring Tech Talent report, analyzes
tech talent in North American cities, and they scored Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver in their top 5 ‘brain gain’
cities. Toronto led the way with brain gain, graduating 26,338 tech degree graduates for 81,200 tech
10101
jobs, resulting in a need for 54,862 openings
01 01001 01001
for new candidates. Montreal (+15,772), Van01 01001 01001
couver (+11,256), Edmonton (+6,478), Ottawa
01 10101 10101
(+5,466), Calgary (+3,466), and Quebec City
01 01001 01001
(+2,364) also experienced brain gain.
THE FUTURE
It’s becoming undeniable that Canada is a
hotspot for tech talent, and with global remote
working becoming more accessible, the future of
Canadian brain drain or brain gain remains to be a
hot debate.
10
01001
01001
10101
01001 01
01001 0100
10101 10
0100
1010
0100
0100
1010
0100
01 01001 01001 0100
01 10101 10101 1010
1 01
01001 01001
01001 01001
0100
0100 01
01 10
01001 01001 0100101
01001 01000110
01001
1100011011
0
10101 10
1
0
1
1
00
10
01001 0110001 101000011
01001 0110001 01 001
01
10011 10101
010 01001
001 01001
001 10101
101 01001
001 0100
001 101
101 10
010
1 10
1 01001
01001 010
GRIT
010
5