Human capital flight, sometimes called
brain drain, refers to the emigration of intelligent, well-educated individuals for better pay or conditions, causing their places of origin to lose skilled people, or "brains". Typically, such emigrating individuals have learned English and have moved to the United Kingdom, the United States or some other English-speaking country. Brain drain is common in developing nations, particularly in former African colonies of the
United Kingdom, the
island nations of the
Caribbean, and in centralized economies such as the former
East Germany and the
Soviet Union. China and India have recently topped the list of those nations experiencing an exodus of skills and intelligence through human capital flight.