THE WEST NO LONGER WELCOMES MIGRANTS WITH OPEN ARMS-RANIL
SLIIT convocation ceremony
Sri Lankans should thinks twice before migrating to other countries as the West no longer welcomes migrants with open arms, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.
Mr. Wickremesinghe made this comment at the convocation ceremony of the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) in Malabe held last evening.
“Most of our youth dream of going abroad to study and some may want to return. I don’t want to discourage anyone who wants to go abroad. However, I must warn you that the West no longer welcomes people to their countries either for employment or for studies, as migration has become a growing problem for those countries.
He said the future is uncertain and when things are uncertain one must think of one’s self as a nation. “The United Kingdom preferred to leave the EU rather than allow the number of migrants to increase. It is the same in
Most of our youth dream of going abroad to study and some may want to return. I don’t want to discourage anyone who wants to go abroad
Europe and the US. They all have their own problems and migration is a major problem,” he added.
Accordingly, he said many who desire to go abroad for studies should learn how to manage in Sri Lanka. He said in the past many migrated to UK and the West and ignored Australia, but today times have changed as Asia is also developing fast.
The Prime Minister said for those who choose to remain the times are exciting.
“When I entered politics it was during a period of transition. We left the socialist economy and went in for a market economy. It was not my father’s generation which went forward but the next generation. New industries such as IT were born. Sri Lanka is in a similar situation now. We can no longer run our economy with low-paying jobs. We need to diversify our exports as well,” he said.
He then stressed the need for innovation, stating that this was the way forward. In the past we had technology. “We had Biso Kotuwas, which was innovative. Then there were the water gardens of Sigiriya. Then there were the gems on the pinnacles of three Dagobas in Anuradhapura, the Jethawanaramaya, the Ruwanweliseya and Abayagiriya, which were used to navigate people towards the ancient city. We had a knack for innovation and this should continue into the future as well,” he said.
The Prime Minister said our IT specialists were the ones who were going to be in the forefront of innovation. He said innovations in IT could very well make jobs such as receptionists and bank clerks a thing of the past in the near future.“don’t plan a life-long career now. In most cases they would change with the times and so should you. Things may be better than you expected and sometimes they may not. Some of my university batch-mates became eminent lawyers. I of course went into politics. One of my batch-mates became the Chief Justice, two more became judges of the Supreme Court. Most of us were satisfied with what we have achieved in life. One must also learn to face obstacles. If you solely depend on success, you will get demoralized during sticky periods in your life. So learn to overcome such obstacles. You will also have to think outside the box,” he told the graduates who had recently passed out.