Working abroad
> Graduates seek greener pastures
WHEN Dilara left Turkey for Dubai five years ago, her friends said the move was a mistake. The country’s economy was flourishing, the cultural scene was vibrant and relations with the West was warm.
But now, “most of my friends are sending me their CVs because they don’t want to stay in Turkey, especially after the referendum,” said Dilara, who did not want to be identified by her real name.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a landmark referendum in April on expanding his powers, which critics fear will lead to oneman rule in an increasingly polarised nation.
Dilara, a specialist in digital marketing, is one of an increasing number of highly-skilled Turks to leave the country, a trend that has grown in recent years, according to Ulas Sunata, a sociologist at the University of Bahcesehir in Istanbul.
Lamenting a lack of data, she said the issue represented a potentially damaging brain drain.
“It’s a genuine problem for the country,” she said.
“But it’s not just the sociocultural aspect, there’s the economic aspect, too ... their departure is a real disadvantage for the country.”
Many who have left or are planning to leave, cited dwindling job prospects for graduates and complained of a rising conservatism and an erosion of civil liberties.
The Turkish government insists it is building a strong economy, based on innovation and investment, with the aim of becoming one of the world’s top 10 economies by the 100th anniversary of the modern Republic in 2023.
The economy has remained robust after the July 2016 failed coup, even expanding by 5.1% in the second quarter this year.
Yet, critics point to high unemployment – especially the 20.6% rate among 15 to 24 yearolds – and an uncertain future outlook as reforms stall.
Erdogan claimed in July that a “brain drain” was taking place not just in Turkey but throughout the Muslim world.
“We are losing our most intelligent students to the benefit of the West,” he said.
Dilara initially left Turkey temporarily to enrich her working experience abroad.
“I planned to go back home recently, but I changed my mind,” she said.
The suppression of recent antigovernment protests and terror attack, has made some think twice about staying in Turkey.
Meanwhile, the failed coup prompted a crackdown that critics claim has been used to go after any opponent of Erdogan and not just the suspected putschists.
“Why should I suffer when there are better options elsewhere?” said a 33-year-old English-language teacher, who did not want to be named.
He said he had opted to leave the country with his wife and children, explaining that they “deserve a better standard of living”.
A 26-year-old filmmaker plans to move to Paris as Turkey is no longer a place for independent films.
The academic sector has been strongly affected by the post-coup purges, which saw over 50,000 people arrested and over 140,000 sacked or suspended.
More than 5,500 academics have been fired by decree under the state of emergency imposed after the attempted putsch.
“If you ever express any political thought (as an academic), it may put you at risk,” one 28-year-old Turk, living in Montreal, said by telephone, who chose to stay in Canada after his doctorate.
Those most likely to leave are graduates, who “have a better chance of being accepted in the countries they want to go to,” said Sunata, who declined to give his full name.
“Leaving involves risks, and it is the graduates who can afford to face them.”
But she warned: “Their departure means that there are fewer people left to uphold important, universal values such as human rights and (their departure) entails a weakening of those values.”
The procedure for leaving is long and arduous: for one historian, who recently moved to France after having long taught in one of Turkey’s most respected universities, it took him four years to prepare the paperwork and find a job abroad.
But the narrowness of the government’s victory in April is a sign for many that all hope for the opposition is not completely dead.
“Things will not change overnight,” the filmmaker admitted. “But Turkey is unpredictable, everything can flip very quickly.”
One civil engineer from Ankara, who refused to follow his friends for a better life overseas, only recently initiated plans to leave, but even so, lamented his pending departure.
“I really love Turkey. I don’t want to leave my country to the conservatives,” he sighed. “I feel like I’m fleeing.” – AFP