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Dark Side of the African Brain Drain: Experiences of Africans Holding Doctoral Degrees in Social Sciences and Humanities Living in France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2016

Abdoulaye Gueye
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Extract

Often, for many analysts theorizing the brain drain, producing macrolevel statistics is considered enough to demonstrate the significance of the concept. Furthermore, nationalist and internationalist theories and perspectives have shaped the discussion of the brain drain, each seeking to determine whether the brain drain generates an economic loss for the country of origin or a gain for the welcoming country.

Type
Part IV: African Migrants in Europe and North America
Information
African Issues , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , 2002 , pp. 62 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2002 

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References

Notes

1. Gondola, Charles Didier, “La crise de la formation en histoire africaine en France, vue par les étudiants africains,” Politique Africaine 65 (1997)Google Scholar; Comi Toulabor, “Des Africanistes, français en particulier,” Limes (1997); Chrétien, Jean-Pierre, “Une crise de l’histoire africaine en langue française,” Politique Africaine 68 (1997)Google Scholar; Cahen, Michel, “Africains et Africanistes: à propos de l’article de Ch. D. Gondola,” Politique Africaine 68 (1997)Google Scholar; Copans, Jean, “Six personnages en quête d’un Africanisme,” Politique Africaine 69 (1998)Google Scholar; Daloz, Jean-Pascal, “Misère(s) de l’Africanisme,” Politique Africaine 70 (1998)Google Scholar.

2. Gondola, ibid; Toulabor, ibid.

3. Gueye, Abdoulaye, Les intellectuels africains en France (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2002), 10 Google Scholar.

4. Reproduced in Tedga, P.J.M., L’enseignement supérieur en Afrique noire francophone. La catastrophe? (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1988), 137 Google Scholar. These statistics are from the French Ministry of Education and go back about a decade. Factors such as political violence, civil instability, and the dearth of employment even in countries considered exemplary allow us to suppose that the number of expatriated doctorate holders is higher today.

5. Because of the state’s ideology, public statistics classify France’s population either as French, an administrative category for individuals with French citizenship, or as aliens for persons without it. Because many African doctorate holders have received French citizenship—to be free from immigration worries—the number of Africans categorized as alien is not representative.

6. Tedga, 132–133.

7. Niane, B., “Le transnational, signe d’excellence. Processus de disqualification de l’État sénégalais dans la formation des cadres,” Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales 95 (1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8. Mallet, Françoise, “Les docteurs et le marché de l’emploi,” Éducation et Formations 41 (1995): 21 Google Scholar; “Jeunes scientifiques français en exil cherchent poste ... en France,” Le Monde, July 5, 2000: 25.

9. All the doctorate holders I interviewed have written their dissertations on a topic related to Africa.

10. In comparison with universities, public research institutions such as the Centre National de la Recherché Scientifique and IRD offer very few positions each year and have hired fewer Africans in comparison with universities. This reality is different from the situation of African Ph.D. holders in the United States, according to Pires, Mark, Kassimir, Ronald, and Bhrane, Mesky, Investing in Return: Rates of Return of African Ph.D.’s Trained in North America (New York, US: SSRC, 1999)Google Scholar.

11. Gueye, Abdoulaye, “Conjonctures historique et démarche identitaire: le cas des intellectuels africains en France,” Sociétés africaines et diaspora 8 (1997): 63–67 Google Scholar.

12. Gaillard, Jacques, Coopération scientifique internationale (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1996)Google Scholar.

13. I have observed this reality both in France, where many Ph.D. holders I interviewed told me they either wished to or were about to migrate to the United States or Canada, and in North America, where in conducting new research, I have noticed an important number of African Ph.D. holderss educated partially or entirely in France.

14. Gueye, Les intellectuels africains en France, 235.