Brain Drain

Do you think brain drain —often known as a major problems in our country— is necessarily a bad thing? I don't think so. In fact it's a big gift that talented minds are able to leave the country and pursue their dreams and goals elsewhere.

At the first glance, it seems like a big loss. A considerable number of young people are leaving the country. Looks like the country is losing a lot of educated workforce.

However, what would happen if they close the borders and imprison all this talent inside the country? Will they be able to grow and be as productive as they want to? Will they cause a technological revolution? or will they join the rows of unemployed people and create more problems for our already troubled society? I tend to agree with the latter.

The biggest advantage of brain drain is that all those individual brains would get the chance to grow in another environment where they get more support and have more freedom to flourish. I mean this is why they leave. From a global point of view, it will helps talents grow and not be wasted. Here is a simple example: a very clever friend of mine received a medal in the International Physics Olympics and entered the university without any concours. He graduated with the best marks, passed the Masters entrance exam but gozinesh failed him for some nonsense reason. For a while he unsuccessfully tried to get around the problem, but at the end he gave up and decided to study his masters abroad. Now he has a PhD and happily lives and works in the States. Would anyone else in his situation have done anything else?

Moreover, the experience that those young talented people gain abroad will be very useful if they decide in a later stage to go back and settle down or engage in business in Iran.

In other words, the fact that young educated people leave the country in the current situation is not only good (for themselves) but is also good for the world, and may also be good for Iran in the future, of course, if they choose to go back.

A few years ago I had this arguement with a wise man. I was upset about the fact that everybody wanted to leave, and was just thinking of ways that would stop young people from leaving. The wise man then told me “An expensive diamond stays where it is appreciated; in a nice museum, on a throne or a crown. If you don't give it the treatment it deserves, of course it won't stay with you. The Qajar king didn't appreciate the biggest diamond in the world, so Kooh-e-noor left and ended up on the British Crown, where it is being taken care of”. I think he was right.

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