ONE question seems to occupy the mind of every professional in Pakistan: When will I leave my country to get a job or to pursue higher education abroad? It usually seems to be an inevitable decision of a great many of our educated people to settle abroad and use their expertise over there.
Pondering over the situation in Pakistan, however, you cannot really reproach the individuals who make such decisions. In Pakistan, professionals complain about unsatisfactory income and poor job opportunities while pursuing the careers of their own choosing. As a result, they leave their homeland and move to some other country for better opportunities. Different industrialized nations have been benefiting immensely from this situation as skilled manpower from developing countries work for them, turning themselves into a valuable asset to the economy of such nations.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, efforts are being made to bring about the phenomenon of a ‘reverse brain drain.’ Although moving slowly against such a huge gradient, the reverse brain drain is beginning to emerge as a direct result of recent global changes that have affected many people.
There is no doubt that the attacks on the World Trade Centre have changed the world. Perceptions have been remoulded, and people have become more wary of each other, especially of anyone who looks or sounds alien. The current negative focus on Islam has made many Muslims living abroad (particularly in the US) adopt a defensive stance and become the recipient of constant negative propaganda.
Ever since the events of 9/11 took place, many Pakistanis living or settled in the US have been returning home for good, apart from those who have been deported. Many US citizens with Pakistani origin feel that they’re being discriminated against in the post-9/11 scenario, which makes them return home. Most of these returnees are skilled people who find themselves confused when it comes to finding employment in the land where they were born and acquired certain skills, but now lacks opportunities to hire the talent it has produced.
“In view of the dire need to reverse the brain drain in Pakistan, we are working to assist individuals with foreign education or overseas work experience to find jobs in Pakistan,” says Haider Qazilbash, who is a volunteer for Career Pakistan, an organization working to reverse Pakistan’s brain drain. Haider actually works for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and says that it is the shared passion of all the volunteers working for Career Pakistan that is making them successful.
“Basically, Career Pakistan is being run by entrepreneurs worldwide who through dedication and commitment are striving for the return of overseas Pakistanis’ talent to enhance the development of the country,” he explains.
“I think people are realizing that it is very important to do something to reverse the brain drain, and now practical steps are being taken. It’s not enough to just talk about an issue or identify it — you need to do something to fix it. Like I say, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”
Career Pakistan’s major publicity source is the Internet. Acting as a matchmaker of sorts, overseas applicants who are interested in working in Pakistan, send along their CVs and fields of interest, salary expectations and cities they would like to work in.
“Once we have an individual’s CV and qualifications, we then make a match to the many reputed private sector companies, multinationals, international organizations, NGOs, and educational institutions that Career Pakistan has directly interacted with. As soon as a suitable match is found an interview is arranged. We perceived at the beginning of establishing our organization that individuals are not really happy about filling in long, detailed forms. So instead, we read their CVs and filter out the information that we need. We also involve a lot of overseas Pakistanis who help in relocating people back to Pakistan. I think it is the shared satisfaction of placing a skilled professional back home that drives others to actively work to achieve this goal,” adds Haider.
At the government level, efforts have also been made to reverse the brain drain through The National Talent Pool, which is part of the Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis. The National Talent Pool is running a programme funded by the UNDP named TOKTEN-Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals.
“This programme is operating to harness the skills of expatriate nationals in various professions,” says Tahira Malik, Director-General of the National Talent Pool. “We arrange visits to Pakistan where engineers, doctors, scientists, IT professionals and other skilled professionals working abroad come to participate in transfer of knowledge and latest technical know-how. All this plays a part in reducing the impact of the brain drain in Pakistan. At the moment the programme is being revised further to enhance its efficiency.”
“What we really need to do is to bring in nationalism which will then dominate materialism,” says Majid Nagra a PhD scholar researching at the American Area Studies Centre, Quaid-i-Azam University.
“The government needs to work on providing incentives and attractive job opportunities to provide a workable environment to our intellectuals living abroad. Instead of adopting temporary measures in hiring foreign qualified PhD scholars, opportunities should be created to offer them permanent jobs here in Pakistan. More attention should also be paid to creating an appropriate infrastructure and system to establish economic self-sufficiency. We also need the restructuring of the political system to make policies more appealing to skilled nationals to effectively lure them back home.”
Maybe the famous words of John F. Kennedy can inculcate some sort of nationalism in many of our departing talent, looking for greener pastures abroad: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
ONE question seems to occupy the mind of every professional in Pakistan: When will I leave my country to get a job or to pursue higher education abroad? It usually seems to be an inevitable decision of a great many of our educated people to settle abroad and use their expertise over there.
