"Highly-Skilled Immigrants"

[justfollowingtheelections]

I'm not sure what your question is.  Many countries show a preference for immigrants that are highly educated (Australia is one of them).  The US does it in a way too (the majority of students in graduate programs in US universities is from abroad).  Developing nations suffer from the brain drain and there have been cases where African countries have requested compensation from countries where their educated citizens live and work.
It makes perfect sense for any country to want to attract the best of the best in any field.

[justfollowingtheelections]

It makes perfect sense for any country to want to attract the best of the best in any field.

Does it? That's my question. There are obvious benefits to this approach, but I want to know if they outweigh the drawbacks. You mentioned the brain drain some African countries experience; that's one of them. I also mentioned in my opening post how encouraging skilled immigration makes it even harder for natives who aren't born well-off.

Yes of course it makes perfect sense.  Why wouldn't the US want to keep a software engineer from Mongolia whose work can make the economy prosper?  Should they care that she doesn't want to go back to her country because the best job she could possibly do there is teach high-school physics?  Developing countries may lose their most intelligent young people to rich countries, but they probably wouldn't be able to do much with them anyway due to a lack of infrastructures and technology, plus they still benefit because those highly skilled workers send money back to their families.  It's a win-win for both the rich country and the poor country (the rich country of course wins more).  

I actually think the US government should make it easier for highly skilled foreigners to enter the country.  Most of my classmates in grad school were foreigners, and when their student visas expired they had to leave the country.  It's also a lot more difficult for foreigners to find work in the US.  A lot of these kids had potential but they had to leave the country, and it is of course the US economy that suffers.  In some cases that works to their advantage because they're more motivated to work hard to get their degree on time and to find a job, while there have been times I was really lazy.
 
I don't understand how a more skilled workforce would affect the poor. The real problem here is cost of education in this country.  Rich kids can go to any school they want even if they don't deserve it and then by using their connections find way better jobs than some poor kid who has worked a lot harder in his/her life.  I knew this brilliant kid from Venezuela whose house was 10 minutes away from an Ivy League School he really wanted to go to, he was admitted to the school, but he chose to go to the state university, because the Ivy League school was too expensive for him.  I have also taught at some very expensive private schools where the students would cheat, not study at all, but still feel entitled to get good grades because their daddy is paying so much money.  Unfortunately the US education system and labor market are an aristocracy not a meritocracy.

[justfollowingtheelections]

The OP was asking I believe about the implications this has on the country that receives the immigrants.  I brought up the effect it has on the countries that suffer from brain drain, and I believe I mentioned that the country which receives the immigrants benefits more than the country who loses them.
On the other hand you have to think of the people themselves who make that decision, in many cases sacrificing family, friends, a familiar environment because they feel their own country cannot offer them what they need in order to accomplish what they are capable of.

It's a very complicated issue and certainly not one that can be answered in a few paragraphs.