Factors Contributing to Brain Drain in Thailand

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to find the main factors which affect the migration rate and may lead to brain drain. Brain drain is the migration of highly trained or skilled people to wealthier countries where they can gain more salary and better standard of living. Moreover, brain drain can result in losing professionals and cause deterring effects on the countries. This has become an important issue as in recent years, more people have been leaving their countries to more developed countries. Thus, it is clear that brain drain is a significant issue in various countries including Thailand. Nevertheless, some countries, for instance Taiwan, have developed policies in order to improve their citizens’ life qualities. Finding the main causes of migration may help us understand more about the situation, which may lead to a solution for this issue. There are mainly three levels of brain drain, Geographical brain drain, Organizational brain drain and Industrial brain drain. In this paper, we mainly discuss Geographical brain drain since it has the most substantial impact on the country. Based on 250 respondents who are Thai inhabitants, the result shows that the most significant reason for migration is the standard of living, followed by social conditions.