Pakistan’s brain drain: Cost of economic crisis

Tahir took a leap of faith when he left Pakistan four months ago in search of a better and more prosperous future in Canada.

Even with no job lined up, he made up his mind to leave as his homeland grapples with a worsening economic crisis that is driving thousands of young, educated workers to pack their bags.

“I felt I needed a powerful passport and an escape plan if things go badly,” said Tahir, a former education worker who is currently job-hunting in Toronto and hopes one day to attain dual Pakistani-canadian citizenship.

He asked to use a pseudonym to protect his identity. More than 800,000 Pakistanis left the country of 220 million to take up jobs last year, according to regulatory and monitoring body the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment, up from a pre-pandemic total of 625,876 in 2019, and 382,439 the year before that.

Many more leave for education or other reasons, and do not return. Devastating floods last year compounded Pakistan’s economic problems, which include shortages of staple foods linked to a dearth of dollars and persistently high inflation that tipped 24 per cent in January. Pakistan is struggling to quell default fears in domestic and international markets, with a $1.1 billion bailout tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stuck due to differences over a programme review that should have been completed in November.

As the government battles to alleviate the crisis, officials are also increasingly worried about the snowballing brain drain that could hamper the country’s eventual recovery.

“The huge exodus of educated youth is of great concern,” Ahsan Iqbal, minister for planning, development and special initiatives, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“It is our responsibility to provide them an enabling environment to stem the emigration.”

The government has launched several development initiatives which it hopes will help retain talent, he added.

They include establishing 200,000 paid internships for young engineers, a Rs 10 billion ($37.35 million) innovation fund and a 40 billion rupee programme to develop 20 poor districts.

Even before the current crisis, many young workers were keen to leave -- frustrated by a decline in purchasing power and limited opportunities to improve their standard of living.

Almost one in three Pakistanis aged under 30 would like to take a job abroad, found a survey carried out by polling firm Gallup Pakistan and its nonprofit subsidiary the Gilani Foundation last June, before the floods struck. —