Raisi Says Government Must Bring Back Elites; Migration Due to ‘Despair Over Improving Iran’s Situation’
The head of the thirteenth government stated in a meeting with university professors: “We must treat students and elites in such a way that they are hopeful about the country’s future, so that not only do they not think about emigrating from the country, but those who have emigrated also return to the country.”
He also said that the thirteenth government will utilize all intellectual capacities and human resources of the country.
Raisi’s remarks about proper treatment of “students and elites” come at a time when the opposite has been implemented in numerous cases. For example, Amirhossein Moradi and Ali Younesi, two talented students and Olympiad medalists at Sharif University of Technology, have been in Evin Prison for over two years. The Islamic Republic’s judiciary claimed, two weeks after these students’ arrest and without presenting any evidence, that they were preparing to commit “sabotage acts.”
In recent years, numerous reports have been published about a widespread wave of emigration of Iranian elites to other countries. In November 2021, the head of the health and treatment commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly also expressed concern in a letter to the leader of the Islamic Republic about the “reduction in the number of specialized medical personnel.”
Hoseinali Shahriari wrote to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: “Another concerning issue that accelerates this process is the departure of physicians from faculty membership status to non-faculty conditions. This comes while unfortunately we are also facing increased requests for emigration outside the country.”
Gholamhossein Majzoubi, deputy for research and technology at Bu-Ali Sina University, also confirmed on September 25, 2021 the wave of “university professors’ emigration outside the country” and stated: “Based on available statistics, we are witnessing the emigration of university professors outside the country, whereas in the past we only witnessed the departure of elites outside the country, but currently we are witnessing the emigration of professors outside the country.”
Mehr News Agency had also recently reported a threefold increase in the rate of Iranian students’ emigration outside the country during the years 2000 to 2019.
Tajarat-News also reported in a report on the emigration of 37 percent of “medal holders in student knowledge olympiads, in the period from 2001 to 2012” and wrote that “25 percent of members of the elite foundation and 15 percent of those ranked below one thousand in the national entrance exam reside in other countries.”
In this report, the reason for these people leaving the country is mentioned as their “despair about improving the country’s situation” and it stated that because of this “they packed their suitcases and chose to emigrate from the country.”
On November 17, 2021, coinciding with the publication of reports about increased emigration and “brain drain” from Iran, the leader of the Islamic Republic criticized the process of elite emigration and considered some people in universities as “elements” who, according to him, discourage young people about the future and “encourage them to leave the country.”
Source: Voice of America
