History Main / BrainDrain

* In ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'', Braseneck College seems to be trying this on Unseen University; their Archchancellor is the former Dean, and their Ponder Stibbons equivalent used to be Ponder's best student. They even offered Ponder the post of Bursar, but he never even asked what the salary was.

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*** Downsides: The CoolHouse Globex gave Homer did all of Marge's work for her, boring her to madness. Bart loved the house, but the quality school Globex built put him in remedial classes with kids every bit as bad as him.[[note]]he got their attention due to not knowing [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin cursive]], but it's implied that Springfield Elementary is actually a ''really'' bad school as Bart also didn't know '''multiplication tables or long division'''[[/note]] Lisa was ecstatic with the house, school and even the town itself... until she discovered that the local wildlife sent her([[DiabolusExMachina never-seen-before-or-since]]) allergies into overdrive. Oh, and Globex' BenevolentBoss Hank Scorpio was actually a EvilGenius enemy of [[Franchise/JamesBond Mr. Bont]] - who Homer helps capture and execute, resulting in Scorpio '''taking over the West Coast.'''

* During a given countries "golden age" it has often been common for adventurous immigrants to swarm over there to find opportunities. For instance, several conquerors have had scholars and artists crowding their courts simply because the prestige attracts. This naturally causes a Brain Drain in other countries.

* Reference is made to the trope in ''Film/TheIpressFile''. Turns out another type of brain drain is happening -- British scientists are being kidnapped and brainwashed to forget their knowledge.

* UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}} [[http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/afghani.asp experienced this when it fell under the rule of the Taliban]]. Women were driven out of the workforce and forced to depend on husbands and male relatives (or else driven to begging or prostitution in order to survive). This particularly impacted healthcare; the male doctors that were left were overworked, many relief workers had left the country, and women were often forbidden from (or at least uncomfortable with) being treated by a male doctor.

[[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] StupidityInducingAttack, which is about making an individual person dumber.

* On ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' this is one of the many issues facing Star City after it goes into an economic tailspin. Many of its businesses close down or relocate to other cities and the city's best and brightest leave for greener pastures. The people who stay behind are either rich enough not to be bothered by this or too poor to leave. This hits the police department especially hard since the events of the series caused it to have an extremely high casualty rate so police officers already had a strong incentive to find employment somewhere else. In one instance and entire elite task force goes rogue because they are desperate to leave the city but cannot afford to pay off their mortgages.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', [[WrongSideOfTheTracks Griffinstone]] is implied to be suffering from this problem by the time of ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E8TheLostTreasureOfGriffonstone "The Lost Treasure Of Griffinstone"]], if Gilda's peddling of [[LethalChef griffinscones]] for the sole reason of wanting to earn enough bits to get out of there is any indication - compare that with the last seen status of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E24MysteryOnTheFriendshipExpress Gustave Le Grande]], who is shown to be a SupremeChef and was far outside Griffinstone in his appearence, and the flashbacks in the stories told by Twilight and Grandpa Gruff of [[VestigialEmpire the glory that Griffinstone once was]].

* Brain Drain was an issue with many Communist nations of the Eastern Bloc, and measures were taken by the Soviet Union and its puppet states to keep people from emigrating to the West. Mostly they did this by making it hard and prolonging the immigration process considerably. In the occassions when permits were given, it was usually for some corrupt measure. This can be seen in the film ''Moonlighting'' where Polish labourers are sent to London to touch up a property owned by a Polish Communist CorruptPolitician.

* [[StiffUpperLip Knights of the Golden Rooster]] in ''[[ForgottenRealms Raven's Bluff]]'' often complain that other knightly orders tend to "take their best". Or, looking from the other end, being an "entry-level" order for common people and adventurers and a route to higher responsibilities is one of the Roosters' main roles.

* The most famous example of this phenomenon is the BerlinWall, which was in large part erected to prevent skilled people from leaving East Germany. Between 1952-1961, nearly ''3.5 million'' Germans left East Germany for West Germany (about 20% of the East German population). They did this by simply walking across - Berlin at the time was legally governed under the Four Power Agreement (France, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, United States) rather than either German government. After the wall, the numbers fell dramatically. It must be noted that the vast majority of emigres from East Germany to West Germany left by official government channels and the escapees constituted only a small part, albeit the most visible one.

** Germany was subject to this in ''spades'' before and after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, thanks to the fact that a good number of technical, scientific, and financial experts were Jews. UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein, [[QuantumPhysics Enrico Fermi]], [[ILoveNuclearPower Niels Bohr]], and [[SpaceRace Wernher von Braun]], just to name a few, all emigrated to the Western powers before or after the war. While those who fled before the war did so on their own initiative to escape the Nazis, researchers and other talented individuals who were taken out by the Allies after the war (with or without their consent) were removed because the Allies had no interest (at least initially) in rebuilding Germany's devastated industrial base.

* The most famous example of this phenomenon is the BerlinWall, which was in large part erected to prevent skilled people from leaving East Germany. Between 1952-1961, nearly ''3.5 million'' Germans left East Germany for West Germany. They did this by simply walking across. After the wall, the numbers fell. It must be noted that the vast majority of emigres from East Germany to West Germany left by official government channels and the escapees constituted only a small part, albeit the most visible one.

In a way, Brain Drain is the opposite of ThePeterPrinciple. However these are opposites that happily coexist and help each other making life a living hell for those who remain: [[BrainDrain The talented move on elsewhere]], while the less talented [[ThePeterPrinciple gets promoted to positions they are incompetent for]] - which can easily lead to becoming a PointyHairedBoss.

In individual cases, ThePeterPrinciple can also be used to subvert BrainDrain - as it turns out that the new guy wasn't so talented after all.

* During a given countries "golden age" it has often been common for adventurous immigrants to swarm over there to find opportunities. For instance, several conquerors have had scholars and artists crowding their courts simply because the prestige attracts. This naturally causes a BrainDrain in other countries.

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** Germany was subject to this in ''spades'' before and after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, thanks to the fact that a good number of technical, scientific, and financial experts were Jews. AlbertEinstein, [[QuantumPhysics Enrico Fermi]], [[ILoveNuclearPower Niels Bohr]], and [[SpaceRace Wernher von Braun]], just to name a few, all emigrated to the Western powers before or after the war. While those who fled before the war did so on their own initiative to escape the Nazis, researchers and other talented individuals who were taken out by the Allies after the war (with or without their consent) were removed because the Allies had no interest (at least initially) in rebuilding Germany's devastated industrial base.

** Germany was subject to this in ''spades'' before and after UsefulNotes/WorldWar2, thanks to the fact that a good number of technical, scientific, and financial experts were Jews. AlbertEinstein, [[QuantumPhysics Enrico Fermi]], [[ILoveNuclearPower Niels Bohr]], and [[SpaceRace Wernher von Braun]], just to name a few, all emigrated to the Western powers before or after the war. While those who fled before the war did so on their own initiative to escape the Nazis, researchers and other talented individuals who were taken out by the Allies after the war (with or without their consent) were removed because the Allies had no interest (at least initially) in rebuilding Germany's devastated industrial base.

* In the InteractiveFiction game ''The Lost Spellmaker'', all of the spellmakers (people who, well... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin make spells]], for the entertainment of the masses) from the PC's town and the other villages nearby are mysteriously disappearing. It turns out they're being stolen by the nearby city of Plantasitoy. Given that Plantasitoy is [[spoiler:an anagram for PlayStation]], one could easily read this as a metaphor.

* By the same principle, countries going through particularly bad times experience an exodus of the talented to anywhere else, which naturally makes ending those bad times more difficult. This situation is often seen in developing nations like India where NRIs (Non-Residential-Indians) are regarded with awe and envy in India for being TheOneWhoMadeItOut and the Indian government and society is trying to encourage talented people to invest and work there.

** By the same principle, countries going through particularly bad times experience an exodus of the talented to anywhere else, which naturally makes ending those bad times more difficult. Perhaps the most famous example of this phenomenon is the BerlinWall, which was in large part erected to prevent skilled people from leaving East Germany (and instead had the unintended effect of keeping precisely those people in East Germany who were unskilled at stealth/tunneling/etc.).
*** All of the Communist countries of the Eastern Bloc experienced lots of brain drain before measures were taken by the Soviet Union and its puppet states to keep people from emigrating to the West.
*** After the Berlin Wall came down, East Germany saw a huge exodus of skilled Germans moving from the Eastern states to the rest of Germany. As a result, Eastern Germany is still considerably far behind the rest of the country twenty years later.

*** Downsides: The CoolHouse Globex gave Homer did all of Marge's work for her, boring her to madness. The quality school Globex built stuck Bart in Special Ed. And even though Lisa enjoyed both the house and the school, the local wildlife sent her(never-seen-before-or-since) allergies into overdrive. Oh, and Globex' BenevolentBoss Hank Scorpio was actually a EvilGenius enemy of [[Franchise/JamesBond Mr. Bont]] - who Homer helps capture and execute, resulting in Scorpio '''taking over the West Coast.'''

In a way, BrainDrain is the opposite of ThePeterPrinciple. However these are opposites that happily coexist and help each other making life a living hell for those who remain: [[BrainDrain The talented move on elsewhere]], while the less talented [[ThePeterPrinciple gets promoted to positions they are incompetent for]] - which can easily lead to becoming a PointyHairedBoss.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', [[VestigalEmpire Griffinstone]] is implied to be suffering from this problem by the time of ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E8TheLostTreasureOfGriffonstone "The Lost Treasure Of Griffinstone"]], if Gilda's peddling of [[LethalChef griffinscones]] for the sole reason of wanting to earn enough bits to get out of there is any indication - compare that with [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E24MysteryOnTheFriendshipExpress Gustave Le Grande]], who is shown to be a SupremeChef and was far outside Griffinstone in his appearence.

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* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': King Radical and his Mafia prevent the brain drain from occuring in Cumberland, MD, by encouraging high school and college graduates to stay in the area. [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/13p26 Very strongly]] encouraging.

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* In one episode of the animated version of ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'', the protagonist manages to get recruited by Nirvana Corporation, the great company that's always steals the best and brightest from his old company. [[spoiler: of course, StatusQuoIsGod - so at the end of the episode he's back in his old cubicle again.]]
* On ''TheSimpsons'' the Globex Corporation tried to hire away Smithers but he wouldn't go for it so they tried the employee with the next highest seniority (and therefore obviously the next best guy) - ''Homer.''
** However, Homer was actually a hugely valuable employee at Globex, his wacky ideas were given a fair try and made the people he managed more productive.
*** Downsides: The CoolHouse Globex gave Homer did all of Marge's work for her, boring her to madness. The quality school Globex built stuck Bart in Special Ed. And even though Lisa enjoyed both the house and the school, the local wildlife sent her(never-seen-before-or-since) allergies into overdrive. Oh, and Globex' BenevolentBoss Hank Scorpio was actually a EvilGenius enemy of [[Franchise/JamesBond Mr. Bont]] - who Homer helps capture and execute, resulting in Scorpio '''taking over the West Coast.'''
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* In the InteractiveFiction game ''The Lost Spellmaker'', all of the spellmakers (people who, well... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin make spells]], for the entertainment of the masses) from the PC's town and the other villages nearby are mysteriously disappearing. It turns out they're being stolen by the nearby city of Plantasitoy. Given that Plantasitoy is [[spoiler:an anagram for PlayStation]], one could easily read this as a metaphor.