Brain Drain and Brain Gain Syndrome (An Empirical Examination of Push and Pull Factors)

The study examined the relationship between brain drain and brain gain syndrome ( push and pull factors). The push and pull factors include economic factors, social and political factors, professional factors, environmental factors, personal factors, educational factors, government and policy factors, technology, and infrastructure factors. A cross-sectional research design was used for the study. The population of the study is 16 public universities. The entire 16 public universities were adopted as sample size under the census sampling method. Being a macro study, five lecturers from each university were used as respondents for the study; a total of 75 respondents were used for data collection. The geographical scope of the study is the South East Region of Nigeria. The content scope is the relationship between brain drain and brain gain syndrome. The unit of analysis is organizational. The questionnaire used for data collection was designed in Linkerts format. Descriptive statistical tools were employed for data analysis for demographic and univariate data, while inferential tool of Spearman’s rank order correlation coefficient was applied for bivariate and multivariate analysis. Findings show (1) that most push and pull factors are recurring decimal as both brain drain and brain gain factors. (2) That insecurity and threat to life are the strongest push factors for brain drain.(3) That unemployment and poor working conditions are highly rated as strong push factor for emigration. (4) That persistent brain drain from a particular country, if not checked and controlled, can lead to a failed state. The study concluded that push factors are results of the inability of the government to create an enabling environment for professionals, skilled people to be gainfully employed, and semi-skilled and unskilled citizens to be meaningfully engaged in productive activities. Based on the findings, the study recommends that the government should identify elements of push factors and initiate policies to address them.