If countries don't want a brain drain, perhaps they should adopt more of the policies of countries their brains are escaping to.

Did you seriously just tell entire countries "have you tried not being poor?"

There's no honour in getting your family killed by illiterate religious fanatics based on how your name sounds "for the greater good". So yes, the onus IS on those large collection of people (country) to recognise that their stone age era values and behaviours are driving away people who might give them a fighting chance to compete in the modern world.

People complain when the US takes over a country and tries to fix it. So yeah, it's up to the citizens.

It's policy and corruption (not to mention war) that makes the people poor in the first place.

Brain drain is a real phenomenon but may not be a real problem. I don't know of any country which is suffering or whose growth is hindered because of lack of brainpower.

It's a "problem" only if you assume nation-states own the brains of their citizens, and have the right to dictate that they stay within their borders.

There's a lot of brains draining from Russia right now due to Putin's policies. Should we deport them all back to Russia?

> It's a "problem" only if you assume nation-states own the brains of their citizens

It is a problem for a nation-state whether you assume that nation-state owns the brains of their citizens or not.

> There's a lot of brains draining from Russia right now due to Putin's policies. Should we deport them all back to Russia?

Nobody said anything like that. You should respond to what was written and not to what is in your head.