No place like home

It may seem counterintuitive given our experience, but no one really wants to leave their home. Although most Pakistanis will confess to a preference for moving abroad, it is important to realise that this desire is borne less out of what other countries offer and rests more on what ours does not provide.

According to the Bureau of Emigration, more than 10 million Pakistanis have left the country for greener pastures. Many of them are highly skilled and work in fields like engineering and medicine which Pakistan sorely needs.

For those of us who still live here, it is easy to look upon those who leave with envy, even derision. The grass, after all, is always greener on the other side. As we deal with the challenges Pakistan throws our way, we may believe that those that flew away have nothing but blue skies ahead.

But that is seldom the case. In reality, it is a very difficult step to shift cities, much less nations. While other countries, particularly the developed ones, offer many amenities that Pakistan is not even close to providing, those that move will usually find themselves in a place without a support networks and several language and cultural barriers that make life not as easy as one would think.

So what is it then that drives this perpetual talent leak? The lack of career prospects, for one. As the
head of the Pakistan Engineering Council put it,
there are almost no jobs due to lack of development
in the country. A similar malaise afflicts several
other sectors.

But we can’t boil it down to just economics. There are other far more insidious things driving this exodus, such as corruption and extremism. Why live in a place where you are paranoid all the time. As the government repeats its promises of a brave new order, it should start looking at how it can turn the country into a home no one wants to leave.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2019.

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