With bright, vigorous and hopeful youth, Lebanon could possibly withstand some of the storms it faces.
by Ghadir Hamadi- Source: Annahar
BEIRUT: Teacher Sarah Mahmoud never thought that she would join the lines of the Lebanese Diaspora, but when the opportunity to work as an assistant principal at a prestigious high school in Qatar presented itself, she found herself reconsidering her decision.
“There is only so much that you can do to better a country before it starts draining the life out of you,” Mahmoud said sadly.
As economic, social, and security problems are continuously on the rise in Lebanon, some millennials are seeking work and citizenship abroad much to the dismay of aging parents.
After contentedly studying, working, and partying in a decade of utter instability, aggression, coupled with short stems of peace, many college-educated Lebanese youths are feeling increasingly hopeless and stuck in a country with limited work opportunities, and worsening security conditions.
It is not possible to put a figure on the brain drain Lebanon is currently undergoing through due to increasing instability on all fronts, and lack of opportunities for the youth.
Ali Haidar, Biomedical Engineering student, said “Staying in Lebanon is equivalent to burying myself alive! Lebanon offers very low salaries for Biomedical Engineers, and the field here doesn’t provide space for learning and growth.”
Haidar expresses his hopes of attaining dual citizenship that can make his and his family’s lives easier.
“I can always take my parents abroad with me if I attained a foreign nationality,” Haidar offers as a compromise.
Serena Dawi, Business Management graduate has been actively looking for a job for a year. “I have applied my CV to more than 50 different companies to no avail.”
Dawi who grew up in Saudi Arabia states that “I had a conservative upbringing, and can’t exactly leave my parents in Lebanon and go work abroad no matter how much I want to.”
In a country were resources and opportunities are scarce, young professionals and fresh graduates are hopping on to the first airplane taking them away to a land and a place where prospects are plenty.
“I rejected three job offers abroad last year simply because my mother would burst into tears whenever I brought up the topic,” said Saad Rikab, Administrative Assistant at an accounting company. “However, my mother has toned it down a bit this year. I think that my mother is finally realizing that we can’t continue living on weary sentiments.”
“I am moving to Dubai in January,” said Ali Sabbah, “as an accountant, I’m finding it very difficult to save enough money to get married and start a family in Lebanon.”
Sabbah continued exasperatedly “I’ve tried to search for better job opportunities in Lebanon but haven’t found anything suitable, so I decided that it’s time to leave.”
Refugee arrival, crooked politicians, and hostile neighbors are all huge problems Lebanon is facing. It isn’t easy for Lebanon to be a small country in the center of the world’s combat zone.
However, with bright, vigorous and hopeful youth, Lebanon could possibly withstand some of the storms it faces. Losing them would place the country in its coup de grace.
Sara Baalbaki, Radio and Television student, told Annahar “I won’t leave Lebanon, because if the hard-working youth leave then who will stay in Lebanon to repair our broken country?”
Nutrition and Dietetics student, who wished to remain anonymous, told Annahar “once a person leaves Lebanon it becomes hard for them to come back. When Lebanese intellectuals move abroad they never come back and then who is left in Lebanon?”
Nourhan Ahmad said, “yes, Lebanon has many great disadvantages, but who said that living in another country and starting all over in a new place is easy?”
Parents have also expressed their worries over their children leaving the nest.
Maya Hussein, a mother of three teenagers, voiced out her concerns “my husband and I worked for thirty years in the gulf to provide our kids with a high standard of living. Therefore, I wouldn’t want them to leave me. Living in a foreign country is hard. Growing up away from your family is hard. Working on foreign soil is hard. There is no place like home.”
Dr. Bassam Hamdar, an economist, articulated his concerns over the Lebanese brain drain stating that “if the immigration of the youth stays on the rise, we will soon be left with a country deprived of the achievements and capabilities of its citizens.”
Information International published a study on youth migration covering the period extending between 1992 to 2014.
The survey noted that 46.3 percent of Lebanese migrants are university graduates, which underscores a sensitive crisis of brain drain.