Bahamians with College Degrees (AKA Brain Drain)

A few thoughts on:

Ten reasons Bahamian college graduates don't want to come home

http://www.thenassauguardian.com/opinion/op-ed/50330

While I agree with the thrust of this and want to add a hearty “hear, hear” I am going to take a contrarian approach to some of the points where I feel it might be helpful to the overall discussion.

One: On getting a job. Some are available with the right attitude, work ethic, and connections. Obstacles all. And when you get one, it may not be a good fit.

So, don't get a job. Freelance or start a business. (We throw up a whole different of obstacles for people trying this so watch out.)

Many job applications are written with the applicant already in mind. This is a result of our work permit laws. We might be better off requiring a mentor/mentee hire requirement when giving out high level work permits. (Or require a hire at a matching pay with the Bahamian being sent to the company's head office country / country of origin of the hired expat for training.)

Two: Something I wrote on facebook today:

“In the Bahamas the saying "It's not what you know but who you know" is popular. Although this practice has some problems and is worse when it is happening in government as opposed to private enterprise, there are honest motivations for this as well as dishonest. It can often come down to the fact that "I feel like I can trust X because I know his family and how he was raised and, even though he has less paper qualifications than Y, I think I am going with him. Plus, if he causes me any problems, I can get his father to sort him out." Don't underestimate this factor. It is also my feeling that the more shady / unethical the situation is in a society, the greater the role this factor plays in such decisions. #cronyism”

Three: Are they getting a college / university education to become a better person / citizen? To pursue their love even if it reduces their income potential? To increase their earning potential?

If the latter, does it not behoove them to see what pays in their country (if that is where they want to live and work) and see who is making the kind of money they hope to make before they choose what degree to go away and get? If they are looking for ROI, this needs to be considered. Right? What is the sense in me going off to study orbital mechanics and zero gravity manufacturing and then coming back to the Bahamas and saying there is no job waiting for me and my country let me down? I came back with a degree in Ocean Engineering in 1981 and have never worked a job in engineering. I could get an attitude about how that all worked out but I have chosen not to.

Re: Innovation. That is against the law here. I know from experience. You need a business license to go into business. If they don't have a preexisting category on the application form, they refuse to give you a license for that business. Innovators need not apply. They do not know how to put other at the bottom of that form the last time I applied.

Four: How do we know they are qualified? No one knows what you are actually qualified and fitted to do until you start doing it and make a track record for yourself.

Five: Probably, but you need to compare take home pay and the buying power it gives.

Six: See Seth Godin's STOP STEALING DREAMS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXpbONjV1Jc

Eight: You got that right. Welcome to the struggle to improve our common home. It can seem hopeless, keep on hoping.

Nine: There is a beauty to a slow pace if it is done for the right reasons and in the right way. I agree we have it wrong in so many ways though. Just don't throw out the baby with the bath water and shoot for the trappings of a wealthy life rather than a quality life.

Ten: And somehow we seem to like it that way. Successive governments have not made a serious impact on changing this in my adult lifetime. Neither have we citizens.

Like I say, I greatly agree with the thrust of this article. I just think we need to consider some other points of view. The main thing I think is we need more Bahamians thinking of providing jobs for themselves and perhaps for others, rather than looking for jobs. It is high time we started dismantling the barriers we have in place that hinder Bahamians trying to start business and especially, in this day and age, online businesses catering to offshore customers.