Raisi says government has a duty to bring back elites; migration due to 'disappointment in improving situation' in Iran
The 13th head of state said in a meeting with university professors: "Students and elites should be treated in a way that makes them hopeful about the future of the country, so that not only do they not think about emigrating, but those who have emigrated should also return to the country."
He also said that the 13th government will utilize all of the country's intellectual capacities and human resources.
Raisi's words about the appropriate treatment of "students and elites" are being made while the opposite has been implemented in numerous cases. For example, Amirhossein Moradi and Ali Younesi, two elite and Olympiad students of Sharif University of Technology, have been in Evin Prison for more than two years. Two weeks after the arrest of these students, the Islamic Republic's judiciary claimed, without providing any evidence, that they were preparing to commit "subversive acts."
In recent years, numerous reports have been published about the widespread wave of migration of Iranian elites to other countries. In November 2011, the head of the Health and Medical Services Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly expressed concern in a letter to the Leader of the Islamic Republic about the "decrease in the number of specialized medical personnel."
Hossein Ali Shahriari wrote to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: "Another worrying issue that is accelerating this process is the departure of doctors from the status of faculty members to non-faculty positions. This is while, unfortunately, we are also facing an increase in requests to emigrate abroad."
Gholamhossein Majzoubi, Vice President for Research and Technology at Bu-Ali Sina University, also confirmed on October 23, 1402, the wave of "migration of university professors abroad" and said: "Based on available statistics, we are witnessing the migration of university professors abroad, while in the past we only witnessed the departure of elites abroad, but currently, we are witnessing the migration of professors abroad."
Mehr News Agency recently reported a threefold increase in the number of Iranian students emigrating abroad between 2000 and 2019.
Tejarat News also reported in a report on the migration of 37 percent of "medal winners in student Olympiads, between 1980 and 1991," and wrote that "25 percent of those eligible for the Elite Foundation and 15 percent of those ranked below 1,000 in the national entrance exam also reside in other countries."
The report states that the reason these people went abroad was their disappointment "with the improvement in the country's situation," and that this is why they "packed their bags and chose to emigrate from the country."
On November 16, 2021, at the same time as reports were published about increased immigration and a "brain drain" from Iran, the Leader of the Islamic Republic criticized the trend of elite immigration and considered some individuals in universities to be "elements" who, according to him, were making young people despair about the future and "encouraging them to leave the country."
Source: Voice of America
