This paper discusses a range of issues concerning the idea of "brain drain" within the context of recent thinking on transnational mobility. It argues that the traditional analyses of brain drain are not sufficient, and that we can usefully approach the topic from a postcolonial perspective concerned with issues of identity, national affiliations, and deterritorialisation of cultures. Based on interviews conducted with international students from India and China in Australian and American universities, this paper analyses the ways in which student subjectivities and career aspirations relate to the dilemmas of globalisation: the opportunities provided by the new knowledge economy and global labour markets on the one hand, and the perceptions of national and community loyalties on the other. (Contains 2 tables and 1 note.)