Brain Drain: Hindering Development of Lesser Developed Nations?

Mario Galeano Thesis- Migration and Remittances: Hindering the Development of Lesser Developed Nations? International Economic and Political Studies Supervisor: Mgr Michal Parizek Abstract As migration has become recently one of the highlights for studies in sociology and economics and is becoming ever more apparent in the political discourse world-wide, the objective of this study is to widen our understanding of its effects on culture, politics, economy and development, particularly in Latin and Central America. It can be considered that the accelerated migration after the fall of Communism will not be slowing down, as economic inequalities within nations keep putting pressure on populations and as the levels of globalization open-up new spaces into which the former primary pressure for migration can be absorbed. An interaction of these two factors thus propels both the supply and the demand for migration. This thesis seeks to understand both sides of the migration phenomenon and investigate to what extent migration is hindering the development of Latin American nations that fall under the attraction of some more developed world powers and which subsequently lose the status of a self-sustaining economy. The study analyzes the case of migration of Central American workers primarily to the United States,..