The Reverse and Return Transfer of Technology (RRTT): Towards a Comprehensive Model of the Migration of African Experts

Abstract

The emigration of experts from Africa to the developed world is often analysed in terms of the reverse transfer of technology (RTT), a process typically described as one in which the skills embedded in an expert become part of a reverse flow of technology from the less developed to the developed world. In the reverse flow or brain gain, the African home country obtains the embedded skills of the returning expert and is able to use them towards national development efforts. The objectives of this paper are to investigate the RTT from the conceptual, empirical, and policy perspectives. At the conceptual level, the objective is to review the insights to the RTT provided in the globalization, the New Diaspora and the New Brain Drain paradigms. Empirically, the paper uses available data to make the case that even though the RTT has been marginalized in recent scholarship, it is a persistent development problem that continues to warrant scholarly and policy attention. Building on this argument, the paper outlines a model of expert migration, termed the reverse and return transfer of technology (RRTT). This model explores the decision-making of migrating experts, especially in terms of source-destination pathways and the choice of locations as either temporary or permanent homes. The policy implications of this reformulation are assessed in terms of the brain drain, the brain gain and remittances.

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