iRan: Reversing Brain Drain in the Islamic Republic
iBridges, a California-based non-profit dedicated to developing and growing the high-tech entrepreneurial ecosystem in Iran, may be part of the solution to the brain drain problem.
by Kayvan Vakili
In 1979, the Islamic Revolution rid Iran of over two and a half millennia of monarchy. It also led to a three-decade exodus of highly educated Iranians from the country. According to the International Monetary Fund, for over twenty-five years, Iran has consistently had one of the highest rates of brain drain in the world. As revealed by various World Bank reports, the annual emigration of at least 150,000 skilled individuals from Iran costs the country’s economy tens of billions of dollars per year. According to an oft-cited 2012 survey by the National Science Foundation, which is based in Washington, D.C., 89 percent of Iranian doctoral students stay in the United States after graduation.
Last year, Bloomberg News’ Golnar Motevalli reported that “at least 40 percent of top-performing students with undergraduate degrees in science and engineering left the country to pursue advanced degrees.” This staggering statistic, due mostly to Iran’s high unemployment rate and lingering lack of job security (attributable at least partly to years of economic sanctions), came directly from the country’s National Elites Foundation, “a government-run organization that supports academically gifted and high-achieving students.”
While these issues have been simmering for decades, the administration of President Hassan Rouhani has been more forthcoming than its predecessor in combating and acknowledging this devastating reality. “In today’s world, a traditional economy cannot rival the world and we can compete with the world economy if we have a knowledge-based economy,” the Shana news agency quoted Rouhani as saying last year.
Even Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s highest political and religious authority, agrees. The Supreme Leader has directed the government to offer “incentives” to attract investment from the millions of successful and affluent Iranians abroad in order to create a “foundation to attract the expertise and scientific capability of the diaspora towards national growth.”
Still, despite understanding the importance of fostering a knowledge-based economy, the Iranian government has few avenues for transforming these good intentions into concrete practice.
