Education: What Brain Drain?
Study casts doubt on reports of educated young fleeing New England
Much attention has been paid lately to the state and region's "brain drain," the massive outflow of educated young professionals to other areas of the country.
In fact, Gov. Deval Patrick was elected in large part thanks to a promise to reverse the disturbing trend.
Well, that job might be easier than it appears.
A new report issued by the New England Public Policy Center, a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, says the much ballyhooed brain drain may not be nearly as bad as we've been led to believe.
Immigrant Offsets
The study of demographic trends reveals that while fewer people between the ages of 25 and 39 live in New England today than at any other time in the past 15 years, the number of people in that category with at least a bachelor's degree has remained the same.
In fact, New England still enjoys the largest population of young professionals of any region in the country, relative to its population of young people and its total household population.
The report studied the in- and out-migration patterns of young professionals, "defined as people 25 to 39 with at least a bachelor's degree," the report said.
Brome also said that the number of well-educated international immigrants arriving in the region daily may very well offset the number of young professionals New England loses domestically, were their demographics studied more closely.
The study found that for every 1,000 young professionals in New England, 40.6 moved into the region while 47.4 moved out, a net outflow of 6.8 young professionals per 1,000.
The trend is not something to be taken lightly, Brome said, but neither is it something to dwell too much upon.
Both the east and western north central parts of the country experienced higher out-migration of young professionals than New England.
Of the eight geographic areas studied, only three had a positive inflow of young professionals, Brome said. The country's mountainous west had a positive net migration rate of 20.4, while the south Atlantic region grew at a rate of 10.9. The Pacific coast had a rating of only 1 net in-migrant per 1,000.
Brome said the fact that New England still has the highest percentage of young professionals with bachelor's degrees in the nation, as a percentage of total population, may indicate that educational attainment in the area will continue to grow, which is certainly a positive thing.
"The bottom line is, the population of young professionals in the region isn't growing, but it's not shrinking either, and that's sort of surprising," Brome said.
"It's not something we should be complacent about, and it's not that outmigration isn't important," she continued. "It's just that other factors like immigration and education have a role here and should be part of the discussion."
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