s that between 1950 and 1963, the number of managers and professionals moving to the United States averaged 2,582 per year, while between 1982-1996 that figure rose to 3,907 (DeVoretz and Laryea, 1998: 6). However, given population increases, the proportionate number of skilled people leaving Canada has fallen significantly. In 1950-63, about 10% of the available professionals emigrated, compared to just 1% in the 1982-96 period. The recent outflow is actually very modest when compared to historical trends. However, his argument is based on permanent visas issued to Canadians by the United States and does not include the TN visas and L visas that are both temporary visas. The emigration of skilled Canadian labors includes engineers, computer scientists, physician, nurses, professors, teachers, managerial personnel and social scientists. Its true that there hasnt been much growth in the number of permanent emigrants to the United States in these categories, however, when non-permanent emigrants are included in the analysis, the picture changes dramatically specially after the implementation of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) 1993.In 1997, non-permanent emigrants accounted for 94% of the total outflow of skilled Canadians to the United States, as compared to 77% in 1986. The total number of emigrants, both permanent and non-permanent, jumped from 17,000 in 1989 to 98,000 in 1997. This growth definitely shows a brain drain in Canada and it proves Helliwell wrong. Statistics Canada opted to exclude NAFTA workers from the emigration data, which is why the consensus data Helliwell had referred to showed a decrease in migration. This exclusion is misleading because of two reasons. First, these workers account for more than 90% of the total emigration of highly skilled Canadians to the United States. Second, even a temporary absence of these workers during periods of shortage in their fields could have serious negative o...
