Pakistan Brain Drain: 187,000 Citizens Leave for Jobs Abroad

Pakistan is facing a growing brain drain, with 187,000 citizens leaving for overseas employment and better opportunities, including doctors, engineers, IT professionals, academics and skilled workers. Not only are Pakistanis migrating in huge numbers, they are the country's best educated The written answer to a Question presented by by Overseas Pakistanis Minister Ch Salik Hussain to the National Assembly indicates that the brain drain is more a haemorrhage, with 187,000 Pakistanis leaving for abroad, in search of employment opportunities and a better future. The answer said that those leaving included doctors, engineers, IT professionals, academics, and skilled and professional workers in other fields. Apart from the obvious loss of talent, which would have better contributed to the country, there is the question of what compensation Pakistan is getting from the host countries for educating all of these young people, often providing them highly technical and sophisticated education at great expense for a poor country. It should be remembered that the benefiting countries do not have a developed education system of their own, or face a shortage of indigenously trained professionals, so import our young people. Common to both is confidence that our graduates are attracted by more money. Too often, by the way, the attraction is not more money; rather it is money abroad, none here. Too often, the problem is not that the job here is worse, but that there is no job. The shortage of opportunities here is the first problem that must be solved. Then there is the question of what constitutes adequate compensation. There is only so much that can be sacrificed. What crops up with increasing frequency is that there is no merit in place, that jobs do not go to the deserving or the best qualified, but to the candidate with the weightiest recommendation. Also, those going abroad (as well as those who stay at home) have a common complaint: the arrogance of officialdom. This is related to, but not identical with, the first complaint. Being dealt with promptly and fairly at a government office is an experience as unfamiliar as it is rare. Then there is the matter of lifestyle. The impression created of a prosperous lifestyle has been created by the media, but it is not entirely false. However, it may be stressed that such a lifestyle is not available to most native Westerners, let alone immigrants. The option of converting our country into an ersatz West is perhaps the goal of the globalization project, but as our best talent must be sucked into the maw of the metropole, perhaps it will not be realized.