Skilled migrants are returning home

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. workforce is being hit with a "brain drain" of educated immigrants who are returning to their homelands, a scholar at Duke University said.

"For the first time in American history, we are experiencing the brain drain that other countries experienced," said Vivek Wadhwa, who is studying reverse immigration, USA Today reported Monday.

Wadhwa said a survey of 1,203 immigrants who returned home to China and India revealed many did so due to increased career opportunities and improved purchasing power in their native lands.

China is also offering financial incentives to lure trained Chinese back home.

"China needs a lot of well-trained personnel," said Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

Wadhwa said "what was a trickle has become a flood," estimating 200,000 Chinese and Indians will return to their homelands in the next five years.