ASEAN Can Help to Address Brain Drain in Southeast Asia

The phenomenon of brain drain has recently sparked debate on social media in Southeast Asia. While the emigration of highly skilled professionals highlights the region’s growing talent and global mobility, it also poses a challenge. As talents leave, home countries risk losing valuable knowledge. This trend raises a key question: Can Southeast Asia sustain its economic growth while losing its top talents?

In Indonesia, hashtags like #kaburajadulu (literally, run away first) have recently circulated on X and Instagram, encapsulating the frustrations of the country’s youth over a lack of high-quality job opportunities and growing discontent with government policies marked by heavy taxation and corruption. Government officials are divided in their responses to the exit of talent, with cynics dismissing those seeking opportunities abroad as unnationalistic and not deserving of a place in Indonesian society and optimists encouraging them to contribute to Indonesia in their individual capacities even from abroad.

The trend is not unique to Indonesia. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Thailand has seen rising discussions on Facebook around the phrase ย้ายประเทศกันเถอะ (Let’s Move Abroad), driven by sluggish economic recovery, overreliance on tourism, and, more broadly, political instability.

Malaysia experiences a significant outflow of skilled talent and human capital, primarily due to race-based affirmative action policies and stagnant educational reforms. Even Singapore, despite reliance on immigrants from various countries, sometimes expresses concern about brain drain and its implications for national identity.

However, in the Philippines, which since the early 1970s has experienced a steady outflow of skilled professionals, the government has normalised the phenomenon as part of a broader development strategy rather than a loss. It actively promotes the idea that Filipino professionals working abroad can still contribute to the nation through remittances.

Moving abroad for better career opportunities is a common trend in the era of globalisation, even though global migration trends fluctuate due to shifting immigration laws in some countries. Migration reflects the dynamics of an open market economy, where talent flows to places where it is most valued. In theory, global mobility signals broader socio-economic development as people are actively looking for higher wages and employment prospects elsewhere.

Beyond economic motives, there are various socio-psychological factors that influence the decision to move elsewhere. For instance, host countries often offer more advanced R&D infrastructure and funding, which attract individuals seeking to develop their personal capacities. Additionally, highly skilled individuals from countries with authoritarian governance and a lack of meritocracy are often pushed to move abroad in search of fairer treatment.

Data on the emigration of skilled professionals from ASEAN countries is currently limited, but several references can help gauge the extent to which these countries experience brain drain. For example, the World Migration Report produced by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) offers insights into migration patterns but focuses on low-skilled migrant workers and refugees. According to IOM data, the majority of the 23.6 million migrants from Southeast Asia in 2020 migrated within Asia, with roughly a third remaining in the same subregion.

The Fragile States Index by the US-based Fund for Peace includes human flight and brain drain as indicators of a state’s vulnerability to collapse. In addition to including the voluntary emigration of professionals and the middle class, the index considers the forced displacement of those who flee the country due to fear of persecution. According to data for 2024, five ASEAN countries – Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and the Philippines – have scores above 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most vulnerable.

UNESCO’s data on the trend of students studying abroad could help predict talent loss to an extent as some students may stay longer and seek opportunities in their host countries. For instance, Vietnam, which leads Southeast Asia in sending students abroad, has seen an increase in the number of students studying abroad. The figure reached over 120,000 before COVID-19.

Monitoring the number of citizens who acquire foreign citizenship in popular work destinations, particularly in G7 countries such as the US and Japan, which tend to have higher median salaries and robust employment protection, can serve as another means of measuring the extent to which Southeast Asian countries have been losing their talents.

According to The State of Southeast Asia 2024 Survey conducted by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute among nearly 2,000 Southeast Asian elite opinion makers, more than 50 per cent of the respondents preferred to live in western countries, if given a chance to relocate.

Some Southeast Asian countries are pursuing policies to retain skilled professionals and attract those working abroad. In 2011, Malaysia introduced TalentCorp as a cornerstone of its talent strategy, aligned with its ambition of becoming a high-income economy by 2028. The programme forges partnerships with leading domestic industries to create employment opportunities that could woo back the Malaysian diaspora as well as retain graduates, mid-career professionals, and highly skilled expatriates.

Thailand is developing a policy to reduce personal income tax for those willing to return home to work. Indonesia, for its part, recently introduced a special permit called Overseas Citizens of Indonesia (OCI) for those wishing to return for long-term residency, which includes the right to purchase property in the country, thereby contributing to the economy.

While ASEAN governments have each introduced measures to stem the brain drain, an often-overlooked strategy lies in leveraging ASEAN’s collective capacity to both prevent and reverse the outflow of talent. ASEAN is projected to become the world’s fourth largest economy by 2030. As part of its economic integration efforts, ASEAN can address its members’ brain drain problem through policy coordination and regional initiatives. ASEAN can begin mainstreaming this issue into its sectoral cooperation on labour and education to better understand its root causes and identify effective solutions. Member states can share best practices and address challenges in mitigating brain drain while tracking and benchmarking their talent retention efforts.

ASEAN countries can also revive and expand their Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs), which are aimed at facilitating the mobility of professionals and skilled labour within the region. Implementation of the existing MRAs is uneven due to differences in education systems and professional accreditation practices. Standardising these remains a challenge, but making MRAs more workable by appointing certifiers and establishing regional accreditation, as well as pooling resources for training programmes in key sectors such as technology, healthcare, and science, can enhance talent circulation within ASEAN. Talent circulation within ASEAN ensures that skills and expertise are more evenly distributed within the region, helping less-developed ASEAN member states benefit from the mobility of professionals rather than losing them to wealthier, non-ASEAN destinations. Free movement of talent across ASEAN can also foster investment and entrepreneurship within the region.

As ASEAN promotes a stronger regional identity, it must also enhance engagement with its global diaspora so that they can stay connected with developments and opportunities in the region. Partnering with leading regional industries to establish mentorship programmes, research collaborations, and business ventures may encourage ASEAN professionals abroad to contribute more actively to the region’s growth through such initiatives.

Retaining talent goes hand in hand with enhancing job opportunities. Strengthening ASEAN’s economic integration to expand the market for high-skilled jobs can make staying in or returning to the region more attractive. Incentives to attract high net–worth individuals among the diaspora to set up high-end business ventures in the ASEAN countries can help create more employment opportunities beneficial for all member states.

Finally, integrating social policies is essential to reversing the brain drain. Enhancing work conditions in high-end sectors, such as career progression pathways and opportunities for regional collaboration without requiring permanent relocation, can be explored. Creating a supportive innovation ecosystem, such as strengthening business-academia-government linkages to foster high-value innovation, can make staying or returning home more attractive for skilled professionals. One concrete step is to set up an ASEAN-wide register to match professionals and opportunities.

Addressing the brain drain problem requires a multifaceted approach involving both individual country policies and regional cooperation. By leveraging ASEAN’s collective capacity, member states may be able to prevent and reverse the brain drain in the region.

Melinda Martinus is the Lead Researcher in Socio-cultural Affairs at the ASEAN Studies Centre, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.

This article originally appeared on Fulcrum on 26 March 2025.