Brain drain in Africa: Dynamism of international circular migration as palliative

For over a decade, the brain drain phenomenon has impacted negatively on the socio-economic development of sub-Saharan Africa. Along with the prevailing structural asymmetry in the global economy and the economic adjustment programmes in many sub-Saharan countries, the emigration of skilled labour has taken serious dimensions. The emerging patterns of international circular migration, leveraged by deliberate state policies of different countries, have encouraged cross-border mobility of labour, for socio-economic gains, with the tendency of maximising legal mobility of labour and combating illegal migration from the continent. This paper has attempted to put in perspective the critical brain drain issues, as well as the concept of international circular migration, its new dynamism and operational benefits, driven by political policies of countries. The negative impact of the brain drain could be minimised, and the potential impacts of international circular migration maximised as a triple-win situation for the migrants-sending and migrants-receiving countries as well as the migrants themselves.