Iran: Ex-Präsident sorgt sich um Braindrain

Immer mehr Menschen aus dem Iran versuchen ins Ausland zu fliehen, weil sie keine Perspektive mehr in ihrem Land sehen. Dies gilt besonders für gut ausgebildete Jüngere. Dieser Braindrain hat inzwischen solche Ausmaße angenommen, dass selbst Ex-Präsident Rohani öffentlich warnt:

Iran’s former President Hassan Rouhani has criticized the harsh treatment of the elite, alleging that some officials are pleased that they are leaving the country. 

“I went to the United States in 2014 where I delivered a speech to [expat] Iranians. All of them longed to return home,” he said in a speech to his former aides and ministers on August 28 a short video of which was only published on Tuesday. 

Rouhani added that an expatriate, apparently with high qualifications, who returned after this meeting was arrested at the airport, presumably by security forces taking their orders from places other than his government. 

“They shut the door. Sadly, some people are happy that our talented youth are leaving. They say, 'Let them go so that others who support the hardline government can take their place,'" he said.

Bis 2020 hatten über 1,8 Millionen das Land verlassen

“We would not be facing this level of emigration if effective action had been taken by the government,” warned Shahriyar Heidari, an independent lawmaker who is deputy chairman of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the parliament. He also expressed concern about serious damage to the country’s academic foundations. “Most of the emigrants are gifted and expert individuals,” he added. 

Er adressiert damit einen Trend, der seit Jahrzehnten anhält, sich aber im letzten Jahr noch einmal verschärft hat. Daten aus dem Jahr 2021 zeigen, wie viele Iranerinnen und Iraner das Land jedes Jahr verlassen:

According to the 2021 “Iran Migration Outlook” report, produced by the Iran Migration Observatory research institution, the number of Iranian migrants has more than doubled over the past three decades, rising from a total of around 800,000 in 1990 to 1.8 million in 2020.

While the growing quantity of mostly skilled and young people heading abroad clearly affects the country in multiple ways, Iran’s information technology sector is among those hit hardest due to the burgeoning outflow of its experts in recent years. Thanks to the relatively fast-paced expansion of telecommunications infrastructure and increased access to the internet — the country has nearly 107 million internet subscribers with a penetration rate of over 127% — the share of the digital economy in Iran’s GDP has grown from just 2.6% to 6.87% over the past decade.