Please don’t come home

And in my own field of physics, intensive face-to-face collaboration between the leaders of international and Australian-based laboratories could lead to totally new approaches to the fabrication of optical fibres and photonic circuitry.

A Return Fellowships scheme would provide incredible research and education opportunities for our local staff and students. It would open up access to vast amounts of expertise and knowledge that would otherwise be lost to Australia. It would help ensure that our students receive training that meets international standards, and would provide these students with new opportunities to themselves explore employment overseas.

It would allow our expats to establish and maintain links to Australian-based institutions (in some cases perhaps paving the way to a full return home at some future point). And it would allow Australian institutions and companies to build new long-term collaborations and cross-fertilisations with their foreign counterparts. Providing our talented overseas citizens with opportunities to put something back into Australia represents a highly cost-effective way of boosting Australian innovation.

So please don’t guilt everyone into coming home, Mr Rudd. Instead, let’s encourage our expats to continue making their mark in the world. And at the same time, let’s put in place a system that channels some of the energy and ideas of our would-be brain drain back into Australia.