Medical brain drain from Africa : case of central Maghreb doctors to France

الملخص FRE

Migrants seem to be a threat for the security of many European countries.

However there is a global war to attract the most skilled migrants.

Skilled migration from the Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) has become a burning issue since this millennium.

Recent data indicate a rise in North African migrants with higher level of education in the OECD countries.

How can we explain this growth? Is it the result of a new dimension of migration or is it simply the improvement of education amongst migrants or children of migrants born abroad? To understand this dynamic, we have examined closely the OCDE data (2012), which are quite global but point the way for more research.

We need more detailed data to understand this trend of North African migration.

From an in-depth analysis of French Labour Force Survey (INSEE, 2012), it seems that migrants with a high level of education are rather heterogeneous.

However two profiles are revealed.

The first one is that of “engineers”.

There is a rich literature on this profile.

The second one is that of doctors in medicine.

This profile is little explored.

The results indicate a high rate of «medical brain drain" from the Maghreb countries and a low educational progress of migrants in France.

They also reveal the profiles of the specialists.

Algeria records a higher rate than its neighbors in three fields: psychiatrist, ophthalmologist and radiologist.