Dear editor,
Have you heard of the "brain drain" phenomenon?
Brain drain has been a one-sided phenomenon in which scientists, engineers and other intellectual elites in developing nations migrate to developed nations for a better living standard. However, nowadays, more and more professionals and second-generation immigrants are returning home, giving birth to the phenomenon known as "reverse brain drain."
In the past, South Korea has faced serious brain drain. However, today South Korea is worried mostly about reverse brain drain. How did this happen? Maybe it's because of the popularity of Korean wave. Or maybe it's due to the economic growth the nation has experienced over the last few decades, especially in the electronics industry. Whatever the reasons, more and more Korean-Americans are returning to their mother land.
Because of this influx of talent, finding a job is still not easy in South Korea. It has always had high demand for white, or even blue, collar jobs. As a result, most Korean-Americans end up teaching English or working at a pub, which has no real value for future career prospects.
Recently, an interesting proposal, called K-Move, has been introduced by presidential candidate Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party. K-Move provides a networking system that connects Korean-Americans with Korean small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are searching for employees that have a global cultural and work background.
In addition, this movement provides a networking bridge for local Koreans with global enterprises. This two-way networking system appears to provide a logical solution to solve the unemployment problem worsened by the reverse brain drain.
This phenomenon seems to be unavoidable, not only in Korea but in an increasingly horizontal global market. If this phenomenon continues, the unemployment problem may get worse. Thus, in order to alleviate this problem, effective governmental or non-governmental proposals need to be generated for nations prone to face this phenomenon in the near future.
Woo Sung-bong
Seocho-2 dong, Seoul