Dubai: It looks a serious challenge for Arab countries. One-third of the educated, ambitious, creative and employed Arab youth, who form the bedrock of their countries' future prosperity, would like to leave their home countries permanently if they were given the opportunity.
A recently released Gallup report says, "The findings suggest that a country's greatest assets … are its most mobile, underscoring the potential effects of brain drain in the region."
Entitled The Silatech Index: Voices of Young Arabs, the report concluded that 31 per cent of the 16,000 people interviewed who already work full-time expressed their desire to emigrate permanently, compared with 17 per cent who are not in the workforce.
Background
The people interviewed were aged between 15 and 29 in 21 Arab League member countries.
While many Arab experts preferred not to comment on the results of the Gallup survey before acquiring more information on the background of the respondents, some of them explained that all Arab countries, in general, are "exporting" their people.
"The only Arab region that attracts people is the Gulf region, and it does so because it offers jobs," Emirati sociology professor Rima Sabban said. However, living abroad is not always the solution for some of those who leave their countries.
Absence of a democratic environment, lack of sufficient job opportunities, unavailability of the aspired "quality" jobs, as well as insufficient wages to build a family are all reasons behind youth emigration.
Arab countries are being described as young societies due to the fact that people under the age of 25 constitute nearly half of the 380 million people.
Living in a democratic environment comes at the top of Arab youth's priorities when they seek emigration, experts concluded. Other priorities include access to better universities and better infrastructure.
Lack of aspired freedoms to Arab youth, who are already exposed to the internet making them aware of freedoms in other parts of the world, create a sense of being "uncomfortably" inside themselves. Yet, "the sense of loyalty to our countries is very high. It is this strong ties to homeland countries that make people fight and struggle and stay", US-educated Sabban added.
Optimism
According to a recent Middle East poll conducted by ASDA'A Burson-Marsetller Arab Youth Survey, nearly 99 per cent of those interviewed said living in a democracy was either "very important" or "somewhat important".
The survey's results were based on 2,000 face-to-face interviews with Arab youths aged between 18 and 24 in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.
With the exception of Egypt and Lebanon, all the interviewees expressed optimism and said their countries are moving in the right direction.
Mary Qawar, regional adviser on skills and employability at International Labour Organisation (ILO) regional office for Arab states in Beirut, asks "what every young person wants".
They want good jobs and adequate income to establish a family, she said. And when they find out that low wages and low security of jobs in the Arab region will not allow them to fulfil their dreams, they look towards the West, lured by their good social security systems and better university opportunities for their children.
But, the youth "don't know that emigration is not easy, and they might also not make it over there", Qawar adds. Also, Arabs after the 9/11 attacks on the US started facing another reality; many parts of the world became antagonistic to Arabs and Muslims, according to experts.
Target
Arabs in particular became a target of harassment, stricter measures and discrimination after it was revealed that the attackers were Arabs and Muslims.
Since then, "Arabs started feeling alienated in their own countries. They are neither comfortable inside their countries, nor abroad," Sabban said.
Among other major concerns of the Arab youth are rising cost of living, shortage of affordable housing and unemployment, the survey said. While democratic environment differs from one country to another in the Arab region, it doesn't constitute the only crucial element in emigration, experts said.
Economic and social welfare also play a role.
"It is a fact that the previous generations of Arabs would enrol in a governmental job after they completed their education, and this job would be a lifetime one," Qawar said.
"It is also a fact that this will never happen with the current generation at all," she told Gulf News.
"A graduate will have to change jobs across the life span, will have to change skills across the life span. We can no longer depend on a permanent job.
"Even the labour laws in Arab countries are changing in a way to allow the employer to fire the employee anytime, unlike before when the employer, even in the private sector, couldn't terminate the services of any of his or her employees."
It is estimated that nearly 4 million young Arabs enter the labour market every year, and the Arab countries, already under the burden of heavy unemployment, face the challenge of absorbing them in the labour force. Unemployment of women is more critical than of men, at the same time.
Worrisome scenario
- 380m population of Arab countries
- 2,000 people targeted in face-to-face interviews
- 21 member nations of Arab League covered by poll
What do you think is the reason behind the growing inclination to emigrate? Are government policies to be blamed for the brain drain? Or does the West still offer better opportunities for growth?
