Ignoring brain drain

Government officials continue to regularly put out statements celebrating overseas Pakistanis and remittances while completely missing the point of how a remittance-based economy is not a good thing. In fact, for a country the size of Pakistan, it is actually a disaster in the making.

Officials can tout record remittances — $38.5 billion in FY25 — as an economic triumph, but it does not make the claim true. The narrative actually obscures the devastating reality that the country is haemorrhaging its future. The mass departure of doctors, engineers and skilled professionals should not be called a point of pride, but a shameful and profound policy failure. A nation cannot build its future on money wired from abroad while the talent needed to deploy it productively walks out of the door.

Between 2024 and 2025, about 5,000 doctors, 11,000 engineers and 13,000 accountants left Pakistan, along with hundreds of thousands of other skilled and unskilled workers. This exodus is hollowing out hospitals while stalling innovation and entrepreneurship. There is also a massive economic loss. Pakistani expats earned an estimated $286.5 billion in 2023, of which $27.3 billion was remitted, according to a study by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics. If there were a way to retain that talent, even at lower, local wages, they would generate significantly more than $27 billion in economic activity, and that is not counting the billions more that could be earned through jobs and intellectual property created by Pakistani innovators and entrepreneurs.

Emigration is a survival strategy borne of rational desperation for stability, meritocracy and safety. Unfortunately, even where the state rewards merit, such as subsidised medical education, starting salaries in highly skilled professions are so low that people without familial wealth cannot even afford room and board. Remittances may increase consumption and bolster foreign reserves, but they are not a growth engine. Rather than cheering the departure of our best and brightest, there is need to create a country where they want to stay.