Fed up with political and economic restrictions, Iranian expat workers are among the least likely in the world to return home.
By Babak Dehghanpisheh.
Newsweek.
Not every country benefits when workers go abroad in search of jobs. Each year approximately 200,000 Iranians, many of them highly educated, leave the country for the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. The International Monetary Fund ranks Iran as having the highest rate of brain drain in the world. The reasons aren't difficult to pinpoint: unemployment hovers around 20 percent and the inflation rate is roughly 15 percent. Government restrictions on investment severely limit business opportunities. In Teheran, university teachers and students frequently moonlight as cab drivers to make ends meet.
For young university graduates, many of whom have been exposed to Western culture through satellite television and the Internet, social restrictions in the Islamic Republic are the last straw. "The biggest reason for the brain drain is the lack of democracy in Iran," says Hamid Reza Jalaipour, a sociologist at Tehran University. " Young people feel their personal rights are threatened so they say good riddance to the hard-line clerics and decide to leave."
For the same reasons, very few return. Rana Ghahremanpour, 27, left Iran to pursue graduate studies in electrical engineering in the United States four years ago. At first she considered going back to Iran. " I used to think about it a lot," she says. "But with the present situation I don't want to go back. I know many [Iranians] who have sunk into life in the U.S.
In fact, so many university students have decided to leave in recent years that internal networks have sprung up to help them. Nariman Fernardin,47,is the dean of the engineering school at the University of Maryland. Farvadin, who left Iran at the height of the revolution in 1979, also acts as a facilitator: top graduates from Iran e-mail him resumes and he helps them navigate the maze of academic bureaucracy, search for financial aid and, occasionally, get in touch with colleagues. "The majority end up staying" says Farvadin. " Very few go back."
The loss of this talent pool is undoubtedly a set back for Iran. But in the short term, it could be worse if they stayed. Frustrated by lack of opportunity, these highly educated citizens could well contribute to an effective civil opposition. "If these 200.000 or so people weren't allowed to leave, Iran would explode," says economist Sayeed Leylaz. "The economy can't absorb them. And there would be more political and social problems."
Farz Nikoukar is one of those looking for a way out. After graduating with top marks from a Tehran University with an M.B.A. last year, Nikoukar, 28, sent out 50 resumes to Iranians firms. He landed only three interviews, so chose the next best option: hire a lawyer to help him press his case at the Canadian Embassy. He has his sights set on Montreal. "Even if you can find a Job [in Iran], It's difficult to have a good life," he says. Until that changes, Iran's intellectual outflow will produce few returns.
