Unveiling Northern Ireland’s ‘Brain-Drain’ Narrative

In April 2025, US Senator George Mitchell, a mediator of the Good Friday Agreement, urged young Northern Irish people to settle in Northern Ireland to ‘cement peace’. His speech commented on the continuing outflux of Northern Irish students and graduates emigrating in search of work elsewhere.

Since the 1980s, the term ‘brain-drain’ has referred to the emigration of educated and high-skilled human capital in pursuit of opportunities that do not exist in its own country. Between 1968 and 1998, an estimated 184,000 people left Northern Ireland to pursue education and employment in the UK - some fleeing the Troubles in the process. Prior to COVID-19, The Financial Times stated that 17,500 Northern Irish students enrolled in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) outside Northern Ireland in 2018. Post-COVID-19, that number dropped to an estimated 16,700 enrolled students in 2022. The narrative of the brain-drain, however, is a malleable concept and a disguise for a deeper problem behind Northern Ireland’s economy.

By unveiling the narrative, media outlets incorrectly frame Northern Ireland as an exporter of high-skilled workers. From a report published by Ulster University, there is suggested evidence that it is not a brain-drain, but a lack of ‘brain-gain’ to offset students leaving Northern Ireland. In 2022, roughly 25% of students, from a total of 66,000 Northern Irish students eligible to enrol in HEIs, left to study elsewhere in the UK. The brain gain, however, to supplant the loss is only 2,880 students from the UK. When compared to Wales, roughly 35,000 Welsh students emigrated, while HEIs in Wales gained over 48,000 students from elsewhere. Additionally, 11% of Northern Irish students that emigrated had no plan to return to Northern Ireland, and 41% of emigrated Northern Irish graduates returned.

Conceptually, brain-drain lacks a definition of the type, duration, and destination of migration. In the globalised 21st century, human capital flight has often been associated with periphery economies. Workers and intelligentsia with tertiary qualifications move to core economies with the intention of higher pay and education opportunities. India, categorised as a periphery economy, has suffered from the brain-drain since the 1950s with the migration of human capital to Europe and the US. As a result, India’s reduced high-skilled labour has negatively affected its healthcare sector. Core economies become increasingly dependent on foreign high-skilled labour for success in certain sectors. Meanwhile, periphery economies are trapped in an unfortunate cycle: individuals migrate, the tax base and infrastructure funding reduce, and more individuals migrate. For Indian students in European HEIs, roughly 30-35% of Indian students return to India.

Northern Ireland, however, is an anomaly. Its Gross Value Added (GVA) per person is 14 times higher than that of India’s. By that definition, Northern Ireland is categorised as a core economy. Yet, the country struggles to attract high-skilled human capital. Both Northern Irish and Indian students leave their countries for better education and career opportunities, including higher salaries as the main attraction. Stormont fails to recognise that they are inadvertently diverting blame towards students and graduates leaving without considering how to create opportunities that give enough of a compelling reason to stay. In 2023, London recorded a net fiscal surplus of over £2,400 per person, meaning that the government is generating more revenue than it is spending. While Northern Ireland, for the past six decades, recorded a net fiscal deficit of over £9,000 per person, meaning the government is generating less revenue than it is spending. Although Westminster finances this deficit, simply retaining graduates does not eliminate the problem: Northern Ireland still needs to create higher-paid employment opportunities and attract investment.

Stormont’s policymakers are failing to identify where employment quality is needed. Instead, they emphasise employment creation that is low-productivity and unattractive for high-skilled workers. There is a dilemma: graduates are not obligated to remain in Northern Ireland, but Stormont incentivises graduates to stay for their benefit. In reality, Stormont deters its own collective responsibilities for the economy by framing the brain-drain as a problem caused by individuals. The most significant example is the cap on university admissions for domestic students. As a result of tuition fee funding by Stormont’s Department of the Economy, Queens University Belfast and Ulster University have to limit offers to roughly 6,000 places out of 28,000 applicants per year. Northern Ireland produces one of the highest levels of students eligible for HEIs, but many do not see the benefit due to costs, accommodation, and external healthcare support. This is particularly significant given that university income per student in Northern Ireland is 25% lower than in England.

From the perspective of Northern Irish students enrolled in HEIs elsewhere in the UK, there is also a deeper political reason that has permeated Northern Ireland’s history. For most, university is an opportunity to live in a new city, experience a culture, and gain some form of independence. Others believe that Northern Ireland is still stuck in a divided past. Even though Good Friday halted almost all of the violence, generations born afterwards are still affected by Stormont’s reactionary attitudes towards each other. There is a shift in violence, not necessarily on the streets during the Troubles, but instead in truculent words between politicians in Stormont. Conservative arguments on whether Northern Ireland should belong to the UK or to the Republic have proven to be damaging to its economy and to young people’s future. Previous generations that have experienced life before Good Friday have often looked up to the next generation – Stormont represents the very opposite of that notion.

In June 2024, Stormont unanimously agreed to improve collaboration between the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Education on retaining young talent. Yet, the media’s ‘brain-drain’ narrative emphasises guilt towards individuals and downplays the responsibilities of policymakers. Stormont’s responsibility should not aim to retain Northern Irish graduates, but to establish an economy that is capable of attracting a ‘brain-gain’. An individual’s pursuit of opportunities continues to conflict with an agenda that refuses to build its own future.