Brain Drain

According to the Bureau of Immigration and Overseas Employment, more than 395,000 people went abroad in search of employment in the first half of this year. Last year, about 800,000 people went abroad in search of better employment, but despite the increase in the number of overseas Pakistanis, remittances declined by 13.6 percent during the last financial year. Most of the two types of people from Pakistan go to foreign countries, one is those who go out under great compulsion, even if they have to take an illegal route, such as those on the boat that sank in Greece in June, most of them do not have any skills and go out and work hard. Others who are highly educated and skilled in their skills But despite this, they do not see a good future for themselves in Pakistan. The working class in Pakistan has never had opportunities to earn well and have a better future, so they mostly go to Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where they live a difficult life away from their families, working hard so that their families can live a better life. Until five or six years ago, highly educated and well-educated people used to calculate that they would definitely earn a little less by living in Pakistan, but the expenses here are also low and they can spend more time with their families by staying here. Moreover, drivers, servants, cooks and gardeners are also easily available here and at low wages.But the services of these people in foreign countries are very expensive. In this way, some used to decide to stay here by comparing the advantages and disadvantages of foreign countries with Pakistan. By living in Pakistan, he used to earn enough to live a rich life here. Due to good income, he used to make one half of the trips to a foreign country in a year, for which he did not face any problem in getting a visa.
But now everyone seems to be trying to get immigration somehow. Now the high flight of the dollar against the rupee, rising inflation and economic and political instability facing the country have not only made it difficult to get good employment, but due to the good lifestyle for which some people preferred to live in Pakistan, they also seem to be confused now.
Then another abuse that is happening to the salaried class in Pakistan is that all the taxes are collected from them. According to a news filed by Shahbaz Rana, Pakistan’s salaried class pays 200 times more taxes than exporters and retailers, which is both surprising and disturbing. Even if they had access to good health, education and security facilities in return for this heavy tax, there was no problem, but the basic facilities for which taxes are collected from the public have no name and mark in the long run.
Six days ago, a letter from a Western country revoking the visa of a well-educated and skilled Pakistani in his field went viral on social media. The reason for this was that due to increasing poverty and inflation in Pakistan, the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar and economic and political instability, we do not believe that you will go back to Pakistan. Many of my own acquaintances, who cannot be thought of, are not getting visas from foreign countries because they will not go back due to the situation in Pakistan. To get a visa for foreign countries, the number of papads that have to be rolled now did not have to be rolled before. Perhaps for these reasons, getting a visa to someone in Pakistan is considered a great success and not getting a visa is considered a failure and an embarrassment.
Along with all these reasons, another major reason for brain drain is that the opportunities available for highly educated and skilled people in Pakistan are also decreasing. Nowadays, only those who have set up their business outside Pakistan or who earn in dollars are considered successful. But in Pakistan, when a person starts starting a business, the whole system stands against him. On the contrary, those who have a strong family background or strong relationship with the bureaucracy succeed. Then it is very difficult to set up an industry or any other business here, but it is equally easy to make and sell a housing scheme. According to the U.S. Migration Institute, pakistan’s skilled people who move to the United States have nearly twice the income of local people and their share in the U.S. economy is also valuable.
In Canada, I keep meeting many Indian skilled people, some of whom I hear saying that it is more beneficial for them to go back to India now, because India’s economy is also getting stronger and they can save more than Canada by staying in India. It should be a matter of concern for us that while the trend of reverse brain drain is increasing in our neighboring country, we are increasingly obsessed with going out of the country. The Pakistani government is now talking about increasing foreign investment, creating special economic zones, but along with these steps for the betterment of the country’s economy, it is also necessary to stop the chain of brain drain so that these highly educated and skilled people can live in Pakistan and contribute to the country’s economy because where the working class finally takes all the money in Pakistan. In the country, they do not get citizenship, where the doors of citizenship are opened for skilled people and remain there.