The issue of ‘brain drain’ is a familiar debate, often reignited when a Malaysian-born achieves success in their adopted country. According to some estimates, Malaysia’s human capital flight has grown at an average rate of 6% a year in the last few decades. And of the two million Malaysians living and working abroad, one-third are highly skilled -- which accounts for about 20% of our tertiary-educated domestic population. Melisa Idris speaks to Dr Koh Sin Yee, Senior Assistant Professor in Asian Migration, Mobility and Diaspora at the Institute of Asian Studies at Universiti Brunei Darussalam