Fernando R. Teson (Florida State University College of Law) has posted Brain Drain
(San Diego Law Review, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2008) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
It is generally assumed that the brain drain (the emigration of skilled citizens from poor countries to rich countries) is a bad thing that needs to be reversed or curbed. In this article I argue against this received view. First, relying on state-of-the-art economic research, I show that the empirical case against the brain drain is flawed. The expectation of emigration in poor countries raises the returns on education, which often causes a brain gain. Second, I show that the normative case against the brain drain is untenable. Critics of the brain drain assume a weak notion of self-ownership (something like Rawls's "collective ownership of talents"). I show that this notion, assuming arguendo that it applies to worldly resources, is inapplicable to natural assets. And finally, taxing the foreign-earned income of the skilled emigrant would amount to unjust double taxation. The upshot is that the state does not own its talented citizens and has therefore no justice-based claim over their talent-generated income (with the possible exception of taxing for the provision of genuine public goods.)