One of the ongoing debates in Canadian higher education is the dilemma of the brain drain and the seemingly conflicting goals between the strategies and intentions of various government departments. While Citizenship and Immigration Canada aims to recruit the brightest students from across the globe to study in Canada and to enable their long-term stay as permanent residents and ultimately as citizens, the Canadian International Development Agency is mandated to strengthen human capacity in developing countries. This paper provides a critical analysis of the brain drain problem by juxtaposing Canadian policies with Cuban policies as manifested in the two countries' divergent approaches to international students and tertiary education scholarships for students from poorer countries. Following an overview of the existing scholarship programmes in both countries, ethical and philosophical considerations are examined that appear to underlie the two countries' individual-rights-based and collective-rights-based justifications for making decisions about the terms on which students from other countries are permitted to study in Canada and Cuba. (Contains 2 figures.)