MMW: There will be a massive “brain drain” of scientists and other highly educated people from the United States.
Thursday, 13 Mar 2025
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Nearly every highly educated progressive I know (progressive, not Democrat) is looking into options abroad.
Some are just saying it to be dramatic, some won’t find a job abroad without work authorizations elsewhere, some just won’t be able to do it because of all the headaches that come with such a move, but I think a good chunk will make it happen.
EDIT: A majority of the responses just confirm the conditions I laid out in my post but seem to think they are refuting my post?
It’s already happening in red states. Scientists, doctors, teachers, engineers, etc. All leaving regressive, repressive areas of the US.
That’s what America wants. We’re now considered anti intellectual.
Given the last month or so, it’s probably already happening.
Lesson 1, people: DO NOT COMPLY IN ADVANCE. This isn’t over yet. They have significant roadblocks, and we have much untapped power. Complying in advance shaves years off this tyrannical timeline and leaves our people high and dry.
The far right wants and expects a Khmer Rouge style purge of the educated .
There’s a lot of foreign asset accounts on this site spreading more crap. Be mindful of them and their grammatical mistakes. Call them out but don’t educate them on how to change their English patterns to sound more American, because that is helping them.
Trump’s last term hit us hard with this. It’s not that people left so much as the top students we generally bring in from around the world didn’t come in the first place. Some went to Europe, others to Canada. It’s no coincidence that Canada led much of the early AI revolution.
But let me know when those gas and grocery prices come down.
The real MMW is that one of the unspoken reasons for return to office measures was to prevent the brains from returning to LCOL areas by utilizing remote work spreading the traditionally educated blue vote into more traditionally red areas ;).
That said that is probably just a big old conspiracy theory from me.
Love the subtle color-coding going on with this illustration.
Germany was the source of a lot of the innovations of the first half of the 20th century until they went down this road. Now it’s our turn to pass the torch and descend into darkness.
There are many educated, high wage earners that have been filtering out since the midterms.
That’s what happens first.
You lose your best & your brightest.
For sure many will stay to keep fighting but many won’t.
PS: I don’t consider the vapid personalities in this assessment. They can get wrecked.
Drain the swamp ? More like drain all the highly educated people
Hi from Canada! We are always looking to drain brains from pretty much anywhere. We will have to change the refugee laws to help USA folks also, however. #sorry no USA refugees *yet*
They are not needed in Gilead.
That’s what trump wants. Vrain desd Americans
We have already seen a bit of this internally. Lots of Red States are wastelands if you are looking for OB/GYN docs.
So, I’m a STEM scientist in academia in the US, though I am originally from Europe (Germany). While it’s absolutely true that virtually all of us despise the orange guy and are worried for the future of academia and science across many disciplines in the US, I doubt that such a brain drain will happen to any significant degree, at least in academia. The primary reason is simply that no other Western country can really compete with the US in terms of the number of available tenure-track positions or in terms of salaries. Don’t get me wrong, I am actively looking for jobs in my field in Germany or neighboring European countries all the time, but there are like 10 times more positions available in the US. This of course varies across disciplines, I work in a field that is very dominated by the US (astrophysics), but other Western countries would have to increase their investments significantly and to some degree also change their systems to attract more US scientists. Even when leaving academia, there are more industry opportunities (and MUCH higher salaries) in the US as well. Europe currently is much more preoccupied with the Russian aggression at their doorstep and economic problems at home than to really care or be able to do increase investments in academia (they absolutely should, it *would* benefit Europe tremendously, but I don’t see it happening anytime soon).
Overall what I think *will* happen is brain “consolidation” – the best scientists across various disciplines will try to leave red states and get positions in blue states instead, potentially even accepting positions at “lesser” institutions. I am starting to see some examples of that, two professors I know just left UT Austin, arguably the best university in Texas and one of the best in the country in our field, and went to UC Santa Barbara – while California’s UC system is great overall, Santa Barbara is definitely on the weaker side. But Texas has threatened the tenure system recently, and only stopped a law to get rid of tenure at the last minute, so no academic really has any trust in Texas any longer. So Texas will undergo a brain drain, but this will simply go towards blue states.
Yep. I’m one of them.
It is already happening. Our best and brightest can get free university in Europe and they don’t have to live in a racist hellscape.
I believe it. It’s completely anecdotal, but my daughter is in HS and here college options are now heavily leaning towards studying abroad. My wife and I are both professionals with graduate degrees looking to get out if she leaves. There’s very little for us here anymore. Unfortunately being over 40 makes it really hard to get to most places. We’re likely looking at a low cost of living in central America or visa hopping.
A lot of our circle are making similar plans.
I’m a biomedical engineer (experience in rehab). The only reason I remain in the US is due to taking care of an aging family member full time. After they die, I will be liquidating and leaving the United States.
Spent a few years abroad, know exactly where I am going and can *easily* get work. The way the US is going now? This theocratic, oligarchy shit where the braindead masses are pumped full of insane propaganda is for the birds. Besides, I’m a transsexual woman… they obviously want me out of society. Fine by me. Peace out lol.
Even beyond that, there is just too much violence here. Yeah, yeah, it’s worse in other places… but it’s better in others still. There is a guy who worked at the grocery store I frequent. We’d often just stop and greet each other, but one day actually started talking. Not but 2 mins into the convo we started talking about what would happen if a mass shooter came into the place. Eye opening convo. The fact something like that is even the topic of discussion is telling. Came home and did a bit of off the hip research and learned concerns over mass shootings are really common among Americans to the point many people avoid events and whatnot.
Cliche as it sounds, “It does not have to be this way.” However, it is that way. This nation is ruled over by some dark people.
I left last year (PhD in CS) for a research institution abroad. Best mental health decision ever for my family. Another new hire in my department is trans and fled Florida last year. Many I know will not even consider a position in places like Florida, Texas, etc. especially if they have female children, regardless of the salary / fit.
Yup. We Europeans noticed and we’ll take full advantage of it. Luring workers who are used to work under the shittiest circumstances with nothing but the bare minimum. 30 days paid leave, 35 hour working week, paid maternity leave, health insurance and sitting while working. You’re all welcome here
That seems unlikely, save for maybe some high skill foreign nationals – seems more likely that Americans will move from States with restrictions on freedoms to those without, Red America will get Redder and Blue America Bluer. I have a hard time imagining that many Americans are going to live abroad full-time, and if they are they’re not helping fix the issue, tbh.
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So where are all these smart people headed ? Just wondering
Yes, they are openly seeking to replace tens of thousands of qualified people who have experience with people whose pre-eminent qualification is unthinking devotion to Trump.
The US in a bad spot but we’re still doing better than Canada and Western Europe. They have aspiring authoritarians and an even worse economic situation
We have been experiencing a brain drain for a while. As the economy continues to remove real opportunity away from higher educated workers we will see a real rise.
I live in Louisiana and yall don’t know what real brain drain is yet.
There is probably a brain drain from red states to blue states
As a Canadian, we’re in dire need of basically all types of medical professionals as well as educators from kindergarten all the way to university, so I hope if those folks do end up going anywhere that they come here tbh
I am a career immunologist and cancer researcher. Recruiters representing European companies contacted me immediately after the election. Perhaps my specific field was identified as one with a high likelihood of defection?