A pejorative description of the tendency for talented people from poorer countries to seek employment in richer ones. Sometimes this migration occurs because, while similar skills are needed in both poor and rich countries, the rich country will provide a higher standard of living. In other cases the brain drain occurs because the technical and economic situation of poorer countries means that job opportunities there are limited or non-existent. It is also possible that the brain drain is encouraged because of tendencies in poorer countries to fill such good jobs as there are on a basis of family connections, political influence, and corruption, while on average richer countries, though subject to some of the same problems, tend to fill posts on a more meritocratic basis.