“Research shows that migration also has positive effects in the countries of origin”

Johannes Haushofer is a development economist and Professor of Economics at the National University of Singapore and Stockholm University. One of his main research interests is the reduction of poverty in the Global South. At the same time, he is also active as a practitioner in this field: in 2021, he founded the organisation Malengo, which enables school graduates from low-income countries to study in Europe. The impact of their support is being scientifically analysed by an independent research team. In this interview, Johannes Haushofer explains how he came to investigate the effects of educational migration, how exactly the Malengo project works and which research questions are at the centre of the investigation into its impact. (The interview has been translated from German.)

Mr Haushofer, you recently changed your research focus from investigating the effects of unconditional cash transfers on poverty reduction in the Global South to studying the effects of educational migration. How did this come about? And in this context, how do you view the criticism that educational migration contributes to a “brain drain” in the countries of origin?

The main aim of my research has always been to reduce poverty as effectively and extensively as possible. Cash transfers have proven to be somewhat successful in doing this because they allow the recipients to determine for themselves how the money is used most effectively. But they have two problems: firstly, the impact is not particularly large. If you give a family $1,000, their income will increase by about ten to 20 per cent over the next one to three years. That’s respectable, but if you start with an income of one dollar a day, it’s not life-changing. Secondly, the effects are not particularly sustainable: after about three to five years they have evaporated.

This disappointment led me to consider which interventions could reduce poverty in a decisive and long-lasting way. Migration comes to mind very quickly: in high-income countries, average families earn around 20 to 30 times as much as in low-income countries. If these dramatic differences can be made even partially accessible through migration, poverty can be significantly and sustainably reduced. In addition, immigration is urgently needed in many high-income countries in order to ensure quality of life in the face of declining populations. Furthermore, research shows that migration also has positive effects in the countries of origin: Migrants not only send money back, but also fulfil an important role model and information function, and migration opportunities create incentives to invest in education. In this respect, the fear of a “brain drain” is not justified. The latest findings rather point to a “brain gain”. Apart from this, the “brain drain” argument against migration is problematic from an ethical point of view because it implies that people from low-income countries should be expected to put their lives and labour at the service of their home country.

In this context, you also launched the Malengo programme, which enables university graduates from Uganda to study in Germany in English by financing their study and living costs for the first year. Can you briefly describe how exactly this project came about and how it is organised and financed?

Once I had decided to open up migration opportunities, I came up with educational migration and Germany as a destination relatively quickly. Educational migration is attractive because it combines the income effects of migration with those of education; and because it is often welcome in high-income countries to reduce the shortage of skilled labour. Germany is attractive because there are no tuition fees at most universities, even for students from non-EU countries – a very clever regulation from a German point of view, because in the calculations of most economists it pays off in the form of tax revenue from graduates. There are now also a whole range of Bachelor’s degree programmes in English, which makes access easier. The trend is rising.

Based on these considerations, I founded the organisation Malengo in 2021, which enables school graduates from low-income countries to study in Europe. In the first year, we supported a group of seven young people from Uganda. In the second year, another 17 were added, and this year 112. We are aiming for at least the same number next year. Both the German embassies and ministries and the universities – often smaller universities of applied sciences – have proved to be excellent partners. We have also sent a first group of students to France this year and we are planning a pilot programme for vocational training next year.

We offer our students a comprehensive mentoring programme to help them apply to German universities and settle into life in Germany. We also pay the application fees, flights and living costs in the first year. After that, the students finance themselves through part-time jobs. Later, when they reach a certain minimum income, they pay part of it back to Malengo as part of a reverse generation contract to support the next generation of students. This enables us to finance ourselves both through donations and investments.

The Malengo programme is not only a funding programme, but also a research project. However, the project and its effects are not being researched by you, but by six other researchers in order to ensure that the research is as independent and objective as possible. What research questions are at the forefront of the scientific monitoring of the programme?

This is primarily a question for the research team, which should be independent and free in the design of the project and the research questions for the reasons I mentioned. But I can say which questions are of interest to us as an organisation. Because the main aim of the programme is to combat poverty, we are of course primarily interested in whether and to what extent the students’ standard of living improves. In addition, we have communicated our particular interest in three aspects to the research team: Firstly, we want to understand not only the economic impact of the programme, but also its impact in other ways. For example, we want to know not only whether the students are earning well, but also whether they are happy. Secondly, it is important to us that not only positive but also possible negative effects of the programme are investigated. To stay with the example: Perhaps our students are earning well but are lonely. That would be important to analyse. Thirdly, we are not only interested in the direct effects for the students, but also the possible effects for their parents and siblings in their home country, for friends and acquaintances and for their home communities. Here, too, it is important to understand not only positive but also possible negative effects. Whether and how these questions are actually pursued is up to the research team.