The tendency for talented people from developing countries to become educated in a developed country and remain there after graduation.

The emigration of a large proportion of highly skilled and educated professionals, usually from a developing country to a developed country offering better social and economic opportunities.

A permanent net out-migration of highly skilled individuals from one country to another.

The persistent loss of the most capable people of a country or region, especially their young people, by emigration due to the lure of opportunities and benefits elsewhere

The emigration of a significant proportion of a country's highly skilled, highly educated professional population, usually to other countries offering better economic and social opportunity (for example, physicians leaving a developing country to practice medicine in a developed country).

A brain drain or human capital flight is an emigration of trained and talented individuals ("human capital") to other nations or jurisdictions, due to conflicts, lack of opportunity, or health hazards where they are living. It parallels the term "capital flight" which refers to financial capital that is no longer invested in the country where its owner lived and earned it. Investment in higher education is lost when a trained individual leaves and does not return.