Human capital flight from Iran has been a significant phenomenon since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. [1] According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Iran had a substantial drain of highly skilled and educated individuals (15 percent) in the early 1990s. [2] More than 150,000 Iranians left the Islamic Republic every year in the early 1990s, [3] and an estimated 25 percent of all Iranians with post-secondary education then lived abroad in OECD-standard developed countries. [2] [4] A 2009 IMF report indicated that Iran tops the list of countries that are losing their academic elite, with a loss of 150,000 to 180,000 specialists—roughly equivalent to a capital loss of US$ 50 billion. [5] [6] [7] In addition, the political crackdown following the 2009 Iranian election protests is said to have created a "spreading refugee exodus" of Iranian intelligentsia. [8] It has also been reported that the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States is running a covert operation code-named "Braindrain Project" with the aim of luring away nuclear-oriented Iranian talent, thus undermining Iran's nuclear program. [9]
In February 2024, the Iranian government initiated efforts to stem the flow of educated individuals leaving the country, focusing on increased surveillance and potential restrictions on movement. [10] [11]
Between 1991 and 1999, job creation in Iran could provide for "less than 60 percent of those entering the job market", according to a 2003 United Nations Common Country Assessment of Iran's development. [6]
The Central Intelligence Agency estimates that 77 percent of 51 million of Iranians aged 15 and over can read and write. [12] A significant majority of this population is at or approaching collegiate levels. Among the factors contributing to the brain-drain in Iran are: "economic well-being and better educational prospects abroad. The inability of the home country to respond to its citizens' needs, coupled with high unemployment rates and a general lack of intellectual and social security, all contribute to the brain-drain. Additionally, self-censorship prevents people from thinking and writing freely, a limitation that makes both scientific and social science research extremely difficult". [13]
Intense competition for university seats in Iran also plays a key role. Only about 11 percent of the approximately 1.5 million people who take exams annually are accepted into a university. Even after acquiring an undergraduate degree, young people find that there are few jobs available. According to official statistics, of the 270,000 university graduates entering the labour market each year, an estimated 75,000 can find jobs. The flight of human capital costs the government over $38 billion annually, two times the revenues received from selling oil. Under the provisions of a five-year development plan, the country is trying to create jobs for its unemployed population, though the results of these efforts have not yet materialized. Consequently, the country remains unable to benefit from its educated diaspora or its pool of unemployed experts at home." [13]
Emigration from Iran is said by one source [14] to have started in earnest with conscription for the Iran–Iraq War. The government's need for fresh troops and the high mortality rate of those troops led to the flight of draft-age Iranian men to other countries.
Another factor may have been the Iranian Cultural Revolution, which occurred after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. On 12 June 1980, the Cultural Revolution shut down Iran's higher-education system for over a year with the goal of a complete overhaul. Nonetheless, the flight abroad of educated Iranians was commented on as early as 31 October 1980, when its importance was disparaged by the Iranian revolutionary leader Ruhollah Khomeini:
The trend continued during the Iran–Iraq War, and after a post-war relative calm, picked up once again during the unprecedented incursion of the clerical establishment in Iranian universities, the last firm bastion of Iran's reformists. In November 2005, a cleric[ who? ] became chancellor of the University of Tehran, replacing Dr. Faraji-dana, and marking the first time that Iran's clerical establishment replaced traditional academia to head a major academic institution. He has however written several books and has served on the faculty of the College of Law as an expert on Islamic jurisprudence. [16]
The lengthy list of Iranian chairs and directors of academia in these countries is arguably a sound index of this reality. Iran's brain-drain has become a focus of the media both domestically and internationally. [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23]
Some blame an impoverished job market (which in turn is blamed by many on Western-imposed economic sanctions), while others blame a notoriously tightening social system. As a symptom of this, in 2006, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised to eradicate all universities from what he called "the liberal and secular influence". [24] [25]
A report by The Washington Prism in January 2006 claims that the International Monetary Fund considers Iran to be ranked highest in brain-drain among developing countries, with an estimated 180,000 people exiting Iran. [26] The Islamic Republic News Agency reports the figure to be 200,000. [27] [28]
According to the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Higher Education, there are approximately 50,000 Iranian students currently studying abroad. [29]
In recent years, several measures have been taken to slow down the brain-drain by providing work and research facilities for academics and highly skilled workers. In February 2003, the Iran National Science Foundation was established to promote science and technology in Iran and benefit the welfare of those engaged in research and development.
Another institution founded to deal with the welfare of Iranians working in the sciences and technology is the "Iran National Geniuses" foundation. [30]
Iran has tried to compensate for the brain-drain by introducing the Graduate Record Bill, which calls for the internalization and expansion of education at the graduate level, thus increasing the number of graduates. [31]
A diaspora is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently reside elsewhere.
Iran's population increased dramatically during the later half of the 20th century, reaching about 80 million by 2016. As of July 2024, Iran's population is around 89.8 million. In recent years, however, Iran's birth rate has dropped significantly. Studies project that Iran's rate of population growth will continue to slow until it stabilises above 100 million by 2050. Half of Iran's population was under 35 years old in 2012.
The politics of Iran takes place in the framework of an Islamic theocracy which was formed following the overthrow of Iran's millennia-long monarchy by the 1979 Revolution. Iran's system of government (nezam) was described by Juan José Linz in 2000 as combining "the ideological bent of totalitarianism with the limited pluralism of authoritarianism". Although it "holds regular elections in which candidates who advocate different policies and incumbents are frequently defeated", Iran scored lower than Saudi Arabia in the 2021 Democracy Index, determined by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Iran is a mixed economy with a large public sector. Some 60% of Iran's economy is centrally planned. Iran's economy is characterized by its hydrocarbon, agricultural, and service sectors, in addition to manufacturing and financial services, with over 40 industries directly involved in the Tehran Stock Exchange. With 10% of the world's proven oil reserves and 15% of its gas reserves, Iran is considered an "energy superpower".
Human capital flight is the emigration or immigration of individuals who have received advanced training in their home country. The net benefits of human capital flight for the receiving country are sometimes referred to as a "brain gain" whereas the net costs for the sending country are sometimes referred to as a "brain drain". In occupations with a surplus of graduates, immigration of foreign-trained professionals can aggravate the underemployment of domestic graduates, whereas emigration from an area with a surplus of trained people leads to better opportunities for those remaining. But emigration may cause problems for the home country if the trained people are in short supply there.
Iran has a network of private, public, and state-affiliated universities offering degrees in higher education. State-run universities of Iran are under the direct supervision of Iran's Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and Ministry of Health and Medical Education. According to article 3 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran guarantees "free education and physical training for everyone at all levels, and the facilitation and expansion of higher education." IANI representatives say that academics in Iran are "ultimately directed by the regime and military when it comes to specific areas of research". Rana Dadpour, who taught at an Iranian university, said that certain areas of research are directed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and could be employed for "surveillance or military purposes".
The phenomenon of large-scale migration of Christians is the main reason why Christians' share of the population has been declining in many countries. Many Muslim countries have witnessed disproportionately high emigration rates among their Christian minorities for several generations. Today, most Middle Eastern people in the United States are Christians, and the majority of Arabs living outside the Arab World are Arab Christians.
The Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, also known as Bank Markazi, was established under the Iranian Banking and Monetary Act in 1960, it serves as the banker to the Iranian government and has the exclusive right of issuing banknote and coinage. CBI is tasked with maintaining the value of Iranian rial and supervision of banks and credit institutions. It acts as custodian of the National Jewels, as well as foreign exchange and gold reserves of Iran. It is also a founding member of the Asian Clearing Union, controls gold and capital flows overseas, represents Iran in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and internationally concludes payment agreements between Iran and other countries.
The Iranian diaspora, also known as Iranian expats, are Iranian citizens or people of Iranian descent living outside Iran.
According to the Fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2005–2010), the Privatization Organization of Iran affiliated with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance is in charge of setting prices and ceding shares to the general public and on the Tehran Stock Exchange. The privatization effort is primarily backed by reformist members of the Iranian government and society who hope that privatization can bring about economic and social change.
Reverse brain drain is a form of brain drain where human capital moves in reverse from a more developed country to a less developed country that is developing rapidly. These migrants may accumulate savings, also known as remittances, and develop skills overseas that can be used in their home country.
Emigration from Colombia is a migratory phenomenon that started in the early 20th century.
The Iraqi diaspora refers to native Iraqis who have left for other countries as emigrants or refugees, and is now one of the largest in modern times, being described by the UN as a "humanitarian crisis" caused by the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 invasion of Iraq and by the ensuing war.
The following are international rankings for Iran:
Following the Iranian Revolution, Iran's banking system was transformed to be run on an Islamic interest-free basis. As of 2010 there were seven large government-run commercial banks. As of March 2014, Iran's banking assets made up over a third of the estimated total of Islamic banking assets globally. They totaled 17,344 trillion rials, or US$523 billion at the free market exchange rate, using central bank data, according to Reuters.
Iranians in the Netherlands form one of the newer and larger populations of the Iranian diaspora in Europe.
Prior to 1979, Iran's economic development was rapid. Traditionally an agrarian society, by the 1970s the country had undergone significant industrialization and economic modernization. This pace of growth had slowed dramatically by 1978 as capital flight reached $30 to $40 billion 1980 US dollars just before the revolution.
Norwegian-Iranians are Norwegians of Iranian descent. The first wave of Norwegian-Iranians migrated to Norway as a direct consequence of the political instability that followed the Islamic revolution in 1979. The political climate has since forced many others to seek refuge in Norway.
The Emirati diaspora comprises Emirati citizens who have emigrated from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to other countries, and people of Emirati descent born or residing in other countries.
Brain drain from Nigeria, nicknamed Japa is the exodus of middle-class and highly skilled Nigerians which has been occurring in waves since the late 1980s to early 1990s. This trend was initially restricted to certain professions but has now become free for all with the introduction of visa programs in order to fill workforce gaps in developed nations. This was sparked by an economic downturn following a period of economic boom in the 1970s and 1980s propelled by the discovery of oil wells in Nigeria.
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