Iranian elite fleeing the country costs $150bn a year
The best student of Tehran University’s food industry masters’ degree, who went abroad 7 years ago to continue her education, says her friends are all like her outside of Iran and don’t ever want to return.
“I wanted to go somewhere that a degree and profession is important to the government. A place where they respect education, profession and human skills,” she said.
“Each year 150,000 of our elite students flee the country,” said Iran’s Minister of Sciences Reza Faraji-Dana some time ago. This means 12,500 each month, or 410 bright students leaving the country without the intention of returning.
A one-way trip which according to the Minister of Science inflicts damages up to ‘$150 billion annually’ to Iran; this means each college student that migrates costs Iran $1 million. This loss has placed Iran second in the world in the field of brain drain.