A recent survey by Datincorp, a Caracas-based pollster, found that some 57 percent of Venezuelans wanted to leave the country. That number, up from 49 percent just four months ago, is just one facet of the rolling collapse in South America's most benighted nation, which has gone from oil powerhouse to global exporter of people in a little over a decade.
But Venezuela's tragedy could also be its neighbors' gain. The race for advantage in the world economy requires many virtues: A competitive market to attract opportunity-seekers, first-rate universities, the rule of law to protect intellectual property. But the knowledge and experience that outsiders bring to a new land can also be vital to long-term development and productivity. That's why many economists agree that global migration is a highway for talent and can even be a shortcut to entrepreneurship.
Look at Venezuela. Half a century ago, this stable, prospering Latin democracy was a magnet for migrants from Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain, who helped modernize the country. But ever since Hugo Chavez turned the Andean economy inside out in the name of Bolivarian socialism, the flows have reversed. From 1990 to 2015, the number of Venezuelans living abroad tripled, according to the United Nations. Now the Bolivarian brain drain is doing for the world what the world did for Venezuela last century: Its skilled migrants are ramping up the heavy oil industry in Colombia, starting businesses in Panama, and opening health clinics in Miami and Toronto.
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