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Brain Gain

When war keeps students from starting high school on time, should they get an extra year?

"Brain Drain" is what happens to a country when its best and brightest minds leave and don't return. The flip side of this is called "Brain Gain." But even when countries benefit from new arrivals, they don’t always make it easy for them.

We meet Maria Merza, working hard to overcome bureaucratic and social obstacles standing in the way of her education. Also: We visit a school in California that provides classes for parents as they drop their children off in the morning; We look at new training programmes for skilled trade jobs, aimed at immigrants; Also, Francenette SaintLouis DΓ©fonce was a nurse in Haiti, but the US won’t recognise her qualifications or experience; Finally, Harvard University student Jin Park pushes the boundaries of who can become a Rhodes Scholar.

(Ayat Alfares, left, is a β€œsuper senior” at Grace M. Davis High School in Modesto, California. Sarah Yousif, right, graduated from the school when she was 21 years old. Both students came to the US as teenagers and began high school later than most of their classmates. Credit: Maria Merza/The World)

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27 minutes

Last on

Mon 17 Dec 2018 09:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 15 Dec 2018 22:32GMT
  • Sun 16 Dec 2018 04:32GMT
  • Sun 16 Dec 2018 12:32GMT
  • Mon 17 Dec 2018 09:32GMT

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