Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: More than 800,000 Pakistanis left Pakistan to take up jobs abroad in 2022, according to the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment, up from a pre-covid total of 625,876 in 2019, and 382,439 in 2018.
Many more leave for education or for some other reasons, and do not return to the homeland. Devastating floods last year multiplied country’s economic issues, which include shortages of staple foods also linked to a dearth of dollars and persistently high inflation that tipped 24 percent last month.
Pakistan is struggling to diminish default fears in international and domestic markets, with a $1.1 billion bailout tranche from the International Monetary Fund stalled due to differences between the two sides over a programme review that should have otherwise been completed in November 2022, Reuters reported.
As the government battles to reduce the crisis, the officials are also increasingly worried about the snowballing brain drain that could hamper Pakistan’s eventual recovery. “The huge exodus of educated youth is of great concern,” minister for planning, development and special initiatives,Ahsan Iqbal told Context. “It is our responsibility to provide them an enabling environment to stem the emigration,” he added.
However, he said the government has launched several development initiatives which will help retain talent. They include establishing 0.2m paid internships for young engineers, a 10 billion rupee innovation fund besides a Rs 40 billion programme to develop 20 poor districts.
Even before the current economic crisis, many young workers, frustrated by limited opportunities to improve their standard of living and a decline in purchasing power and were keen to leave the country.
Aged under 30 like to take a job abroad
Almost one third Pakistanis aged under 30 would like to take a job abroad, according to a survey carried out by Gallup Pakistan and its nonprofit subsidiary the Gilani Foundation in June 2022, before the floods struck. That rose to above 50 percent among university-educated youth, said Bilal Gilani, executive director of Gallup Pakistan.
