Around 65,000 people on average are emigrating from Iran for different reasons every year.
Previously, better opportunities attracted Iranians to other countries, but now bad conditions at home has become the main reason of emigration, according to the head of Iran Migration Observatory (Imobs).
“Based on the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization and World Bank figures for 2022, general expenses [imposed on the government] for each individual amounts to around $120,000 on average. A breakdown of this figure shows around $45,059 are spent on healthcare and $69,541 on primary, secondary, high school and undergraduate education. This means that along with our emigrating population, billions of dollars are being taken away every year,” Bahram Salavati was also quoted as saying by the Persian economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad.
The official noted that if migration was once an epidemic among university students and talents, it has now become contagious and turned into a pandemic among skilled workers and laborers from all sectors, adding that this will lead to a severe shortage of workforce in the country in the years to come.
“Our data at Imobs show that between 2010 and 2021, close to 86,000 non-tourist visas or residence permits were issued per year for Iranians mainly by European countries, the US, Australia, Turkey and other member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development,” he added.
According to the official, Iran’s global ranking in terms of sending students abroad ascended from the 26th biggest in the year 2000 to 17th in 2020.
In 2000, around 17,000 Iranian students went abroad to pursue their educational aspirations, while in 2020, the figure exceeded 66,000.
The US, Germany, Turkey, Canada and Italy are the top five destinations for Iranian students.
New Destinations, New Reasons
New countries are being added to the list of destinations Iranian students apply for. One such destination is Russia which, until recently, was seldom a choice.
The official noted that in the past, factors such as funded positions, availability of a variety of majors, technological advancements, modern laboratories, etc. enticed students to apply for foreign universities, whereas today, bad social, political, cultural and economic factors have overtaken the former set of encouraging reasons.
Imobs figures also show that, at present, Iranians are emigrating at much lower ages.
Salavati says families nowadays are sending their school-going kids abroad, in the hope of joining them later.
Emigrating via startups is a relatively new mode of emigration. In 2021, Canada issued 80 visas and the UK issued 30 visas for Iranians with startup ideas. These figures have reached 30 and 14 respectively so far in 2022, he added.
“Iran is also prone to natural disasters. From among 40 natural disasters, Iran is prone to 31 of them. Some 93% of the country are grappling with some sort of drought. Today a growing reason for migration across the globe is climate change and in 2021 alone, more than 41,000 Iranians have moved due to this reason.”
He also noted that a total of 142,989 Iranian refugees are living in different countries as of this year.
“Germany has always been a top destination for Iranian refugees. Figures pertaining to 2021 show that the country alone accommodates one-third of all Iranian refuge population,” he added.
Gallup 2018 data show that only 1% of Iranian migrants have the desire to return to their country, which figure is way below the global average of 7%.
However, Salavati claims around 15.6% of entrepreneurs and top managers, 13.2% of mid-level managers, 13.3% of employees, 23% of medical doctors and 9.6% of university students and graduates have the desire to return.
But, on the other hand, he noted that 24.9% of entrepreneurs and top managers, 42% of mid-level managers, 22% of employees and 34.4% of university students are yearning to emigrate.
A comparison of the two figures clearly shows that more people are eager to leave than those thinking of returning.
“Emigration is not at all taken seriously in Iran. We have already lost the opportunity and means to make people want to stay in the country. We have to focus on bringing back part of the emigrated population. Yet, here too, we lack the means and infrastructure to be able to use the skills and expertise of these educated and talented experts,” Salavati said.
Migration of the Elite
Economic development is always accompanied by an improvement in the quantity and quality of production. A developing society gradually learns how to make the best use of its potentials and do away with low efficiency (a feature of a traditional society before development starts). An increase in production, income and eventually well-being will materialize when all components of production, including human labor, capital and natural resources, are employed in a better and sensible way to increase output, Nasser Zakeri, an economist, recently wrote for the Persian daily Shargh. A translation of the article follows:
A country undergoing development should employ all available components of production as well as those of other societies to achieve its goals. Developing countries are in a breathtaking competition to attracting foreign investment and the elite forces of other societies; each country tries to attract the crème de la crème of immigrant workforce.
From this perspective, the migration of skilled workers amounts to a great loss for the national economy because it not only deprives a part of an economy’s production components, but also puts rivals in an advantageous position, giving them the upper-hand for growth and prosperity.
Over the past decades, the Iranian economy has suffered seriously from human capital flight. Some economic players have taken out their capital and settled in other countries, while the elite and the learned of our country also showed a strong willingness to move to other countries. The unemployment of specialized workers, stagnation and lack of attractive investment opportunities have set the scene for the immigration of economic players.
There are different opinions regarding human capital flight; official institutions only accept part of the statistics and claim figures on this issue have been inflated. However, one can feel the gravity of the problem just by taking a brief look inside.
A senior official with the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research believes that the immigration of skilled workers is an old issue, as “we are now seeing the migration of knowledge-based companies,” he said. If we accept this unfortunate and easily verifiable claim, we have to agree that the move toward development will become difficult and a solution should be worked out as soon as possible.
The immigration of elites is a great loss for the country but it pales in comparison to the migration of a knowledge-based company. The immigration of an individual can be seen as a person being dissatisfied with his job and future opportunities, and immigrates to another country in search of a better job opportunity.
However, what you interpret from the migration of a knowledge-based company is that a group of experts, who were willing to serve the national economy and improve production and worked for a long time to achieve their goals, have failed to establish a decent position in the economy and now they are forced to relocate their business to another country.
Such a form of migration implies that rent-based relations in our economy have rendered the competition unbearable for the elites; they can’t be hopeful about their future even with the support of the official institutions and sooner or later, they have to pack up and leave.
Our economy is losing its human and financial capital while our regional competitors are using this valuable opportunity, moving them to their own countries.
Many Iran-loving experts are wondering what has led to the rapid economic growth of the southern coast of the Persian Gulf. How can the UAE generate wealth from each square meter of land in the Jebel Ali Free Zone compared with Iranian free zones? And how are we nonchalantly seeing off our human and financial capital boarding the neighboring countries’ speedboat to help boost their economic growth?
