From brain drain to brain gain

Reversing the brain drain is a key priority for us — Scott Donnelly

If only, like Scott Donnelly, our country understands the impact brain drain has had on our country. What is brain drain, you ask? Brain drain refers to the migration of highly skilled, intellectual and technical forces to foreign lands. In easier words, it is when highly equipped and intelligent individuals who can offer a lot to their nation and help it progress, choose to move to a land other than their own and put their abilities to work in that land.

Brain drain is becoming a very serious issue for Pakistan. It is reported that in 2013, 2.7 million Pakistanis left the country in the preceding five years to find better work opportunities. This is an alarming condition as Pakistan is losing its human capital rapidly which directly impacts the development of our economy. Why is this so?



Well, for one, they want a safer future, a more secure one for their family and themselves. Be it about low salaries, unemployment issues, no area of interest, not being able to understand the person’s intellect or the overall environment of the country, the people of Pakistan have left and are continuing to do so because let’s face it, they will only give to the country if the country promises to give to them.

According to a survey of Gallup-Pakistan, more than two-thirds of Pakistan’s adult population wants to go abroad for work and half of it has no desire to return. A similar survey was carried out in 1984, according to which only 17% Pakistanis had expressed their desire to settle abroad.

An example is of the eighteen-year-old Sumail Hassan Syed from Karachi who made history for Pakistan after moving to the United States when he helped his team, <http://evilgeniuses.gg/The-team/Dota-2/> Evil Geniuses’, claim the <http://evilgeniuses.gg/The-team/Dota-2/> Defense of the Ancient 2 (Dota 2) Asian championship in China. In Pakistan, he had found no platform to showcase his talent.

Another example is of the first visual effects artist in Hollywood Muqeem Khan who recalls landing a job at giant entertainment film company Walt Disney Pictures and there was no Pakistani company offering the same perks to Muqeem.



Mir Zafar Ali, a <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistani> Pakistani movie <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_effects>visual effects artis has been given an <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award> Academy Award-winner for Best Visual Effects. After completing his education in Karachi and working there for 2 years, he moved to Hollywood to work on his first project: the movie The Day After Tomorrow and this was the start to his journey to success. If his company had not retained him, he would have been working for our media industry.

The brain drain has been on the rise in Pakistan for the past two decades as more graduates opt to look towards a financially secure and comfortable lifestyle in other parts of the world. UNESCO claims that the highly skilled migration rate of Pakistan has increased more than 60 per cent from 1992 to 2000, which is an indicator of the alarming magnitude of the brain drain in the country.

As per the statistics released by the ministry of overseas Pakistanis and human resource development, around 2.765 million citizens, including 31,607 from Balochistan, have proceeded abroad for employment opportunities over the last five years. According to the figures from January 2008 to September 2013, the selection of workers was prerogative of foreign employers, which was based on the criterion “right person for the right job”.



Let us discuss the possible reasons for its recent occurrence based on real-time examples. People have grown out of just studying specific subjects, majoring in them and working in a specific sector to earn for a living. The subjects aren’t being offered in Pakistan and even if they are, they have no 'scope' in the future if the person decides to stay in Pakistan. The people of this time have become competitive and want to follow their passions.

Supposedly, a person majors in a degree from a renowned university, tops his class and even lands a good job but the salary is low. Young men are struggling these days to make ends meet. They wish to give back to their parents and society but if their pockets don’t allow them, how will they? This way, they yearn to go abroad and earn a decent living for their family. Not everyone — almost more than half the population of today’s students does not come from families with established businesses. When they start working for an organisation, they expect some security, occasional bonuses, medication, health insurance and only the top multinational companies of Pakistan provide such perks. The failure rate of startups is so high that people are petrified to invest in starting their own business and creating employment opportunities for fellow Pakistanis. Even if all falls in place, people are scared to let their children walk the streets unaccompanied. Where the eternal environment of a nation sends shivers down the parent’s spine, they think about migrating to safer houses and towns.

That is not all, education is free in European countries for their own citizens and for foreigners the fee is minimal! Germany, being the leading example, is a great country which offers a lot of growth opportunities and the education fee is more affordable than any other decent university in Pakistan.

The examples are endless and the data is against us. The government and the officials need to step in before we get deprived of all the geniuses we have. The solution isn’t hard, but the question is that will the government realise it before Pakistan gets drained of creativity, intellect and talent?

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2018.

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