Brain drain worry for socialist Algeria as professionals seek better lives
A GROWING number of young, educated Algerians are looking for work in Europe or the Gulf to escape the low salaries imposed by a state-dominated economy at home.
The exodus of doctors, engineers and other highly skilled workers is a headache for a government hoping to engage with its largely youthful electorate before the vote on April 18.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 81, has not said if he will seek a fifth term, although the ruling FLN (National Liberation Front party, labour unions and business leaders are urging him on.
For young professionals, the question is scarcely relevant. Many feel disconnected from an elite populated by the veterans of Algeria’s 1954-1962 war of independence from France, an era they only know about from their grandparents.
They want to pursue their careers but feel discouraged by a system that offers low-paid jobs and little opportunity to better themselves.
Nearly 15 000 Algerian doctors work in France and 4 000 submitted applications to leave their home country last year, according to official figures. The government does not accept all the blame.
“The press has exaggerated the phenomenon… it is a problem for all Algerians, not just the government,” Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said.
But in Europe doctors can earn 10 times what they get in Algeria, a socialist economy where medical professionals are paid little more than less skilled public employees.
“Salaries, working conditions are bad, and above all there is no appreciation of doctors,” said Mohamed Yousfi, the head of the specialist doctors’ union.
“Our doctors are filling the medical desert in Western countries like France, Canada and Germany. They are also present in the Gulf,” said Yousfi, sitting in his office in the public hospital at Boufarik, a town near Algiers.
Algeria has poured billions of dollars into the health sector in the past decades, with about 50 000 doctors and 150 000 beds available last year, official data shows.
The North African oil and gas-producing nation guarantees citizens cradle-to-grave welfare, but a lack of competition from the private sector means some services are poor.
The country only ranks 85 out of 189 in the Human Development Index of living standards compiled by the UN Development Programme.