Germany loses the brightest minds to the US

From the blog Atlantic Review, is this recent post on Germany's best and brightest increasingly leaving for the greener pastures of America and Canada (and Switzerland; many German physicians come across the border for the higher wages and better working conditions).

Especially interesting are the anecdotes from the comments. Here is the post (I supplied some punctuation, internal links are from the original):

In an interview with the leftwing/liberal German daily Frankfurter Rundschau, migration expert Klaus Bade paints an unpleasant migration-picture for Germany: While immigrants often times don't fulfill the requirements to fit in socially and professionally, more and more well educated, German-trained professionals turn their backs on the country, increasingly so not only for certain period of time, but for good, he says.

Two of the reasons he mentions are the continuingly unpromising outlook for the German job market and "absurd practices within the German academia," which will soon drive so many experts abroad that we can expect a distinct shortage of trained professionals in certain sectors. Among the highly and very highly qualified experts Germany is loosing are IT-professionals, many of whom migrating to the United States. Canada is among other favored countries of immigration.

Predominant among the emigrants are young, educated people "in their best years of earning," Bade laments. "Germany is on her way to find herself on the loser's side of the competition over the brightest minds." An additional problem he contends: While many second- or third generation immigrants to Germany are now leaving the country for better opportunities abroad, their parents and grandparents tend to stay in order to enjoy their retirement benefits in Germany."

In times of retirement crisis, this is a problem that should not be underestimated", Bade warns. All in all, he contends, this is "a thoroughly unpleasant migration scenario, which should neither be talked nor calculated away."

German universities still produce top-notch graduates. When one adds up the costs of education, and then recruiting replacements when the professionals leave, the bill must be enormous.

UPDATE: Submitted to Carnival of German-American Relations. Also, the benefit to the US has been calculated to be around $50 billion.