Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, September 5, 2021—The Iranian regime’s destructive policies have made the brain drain phenomenon a daily routine. Doctors, nurses, engineers, and other elites are fleeing Iran and seeking a better life in other countries.
Iran’s brain drain dilemma is not a matter of today or yesterday. After taking the power, the mullahs’ regime has pursued policies that many sections of Iran’s society, including professionals, the educated, etc. were left with no choice but to emigrate to other countries.
Khomeini and Human capital flight
Following the 1979 revolution the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) protested Iran’s brain drain and the regime’s the supreme leader Ruhoall Khomeini for establishing tyranny and repression. In response, in November 1979 Khomeini ignored the subject in its entirety and made preposterous remarks.
“Monafeghin (PMOI) say that the elites are fleeing. To hell with it! Those who are educated, who all talk about science and civilization, let them go,” he said at the time.
“Universities and these college professions have been the root of all the calamities that have befallen mankind to this day…” said Khomeini on December 18, 1980.
It may be reminiscent of ISIS to hear such remarks in this day and age. However, back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, no one could have imagined the dangers and harms behind such a mentality and this kind of reactionary ideology for Iran.
More than four decades have passed since those days. Iran is still suffering from the elite and brain drain, and a significant part of the country’s precious human capital have left and continue leave their homeland on a daily basis due to the ruling regime’s reactionary policies and settle down in other countries.
Iran’s brain drain statistics
In an interview with the state-run Shargh daily on August 23, Mohhammadreza Zafarghandi, head of the regime’s Medical Council, said during the past year along 3,000 applications had been sent to this organization by doctors to immigrate to other countries.
Zafarghandi attributed the increase in immigration applications to long shifts, being distanced from family, prolongation of the study period, low wages, and other such similar problems.
Although these issues are undeniable, in another part of his remarks, Zafarghandi pinpoints the main reason for the emigration of doctors from Iran. The regime’s leaders must “know that individuals, graduates, and especially the youth of the society, will migrate elsewhere if they are valued more.”
However, Ali Tajernia, senior advisor to the head of the regime’s Medical Council, said back in January that more than 3,000 doctors had migrated from Iran, adding that the exact number of immigrant doctors can be much higher because there are about 400 Iranian dentists working in one Canadian province alone!
Over 145,000 people emigrate from Iran each year, of which 105,000 have a university degree, according to statistics published by Iran’s Ministry of Sciences in 2020,
20 elites leave Iran each day
Mohammad Vahidi, the first deputy chairman of the parliament’s Education Commission, said back in December of 2020 that 20 scientific elites were migrating from Iran each day y, calling Iran a world record holder for brain drain.
In addition to physicians, trained nurses are also leaving Iran and their numbers have increased significantly in recent years.
Mohammad Sharifi Moghaddam, secretary general of Iran’s Nurses’ House said in an interview with the state-run Jahan-e-Sanat daily on May 6, 2021, that recently between 100 to 150 nurses have been migrating from Iran every month.
But Armin Zareiyan, chairman of the Iran’s Nursing Organization Board of Directors, considers the rate of nurses’ migration from the country being almost three times this figure.
On April 11 Zareiyan said each month 500 nurses migrate to European countries and the United States.
The Iranian regime also has the highest number of nurses dying to Covid-19 in the world, with the current figure standing at 130.
