Iraq's 'brain drain' continues
This morning while filming at a government department an Iraqi employee who introduced himself as Ahmed told me he'd just begun to work there after quitting his job at the police academy because it was too dangerous.
"We were three translators working for the American instructors," he said. "The other two were killed in a suicide bombing so I left and found work here. I want to live."
Fair enough. Not everyone believes that rebuilding Iraq is worth dying for. So how was the new job going?
"It's easy," he said. "But I want to go to England or the United States to study. I have a BA in English literature, but I want to study engineering. My wife has an MA but she wants a Ph.D. We want to leave here. There's no security. Iraq isn't going to get any better for at least another generation."
Hitting the road
Ahmed isn't alone. Hundreds of middle class Iraqis leave every week. In Amman, the capital of nearby Jordan, a quarter of a million now have residence visas. Syria, which admits Arabs of all nationalities without visas, probably hosts the same number. Most foreigners working in Baghdad know of at least one Iraqi family now living abroad. Indeed, many foreigners have helped Iraqis to leave by recommending them for visas, study programs and jobs abroad.
During Saddam Hussein's time hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fled persecution at home and sought sanctuary in Europe or the United States, or in neighboring Arab countries. After the Gulf War of 1991, when international sanctions began to bite, Iraq's middle class was decimated. People's savings evaporated as the value of the Iraqi dinar declined.
Looking for a better life, wherever it is
So the rush to leave isn't new, but it's a sad indicator of how Iraqis still feel about their country three years after Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown. The brain drain continues today as professionals come to the sad conclusion that there's little work, not much money and no security here.
Even the most idealistic of Iraqis have trouble believing that there's much of a future for their country.
An Iraqi-American economist who returned here a year ago quit his job in the planning department of an Iraqi ministry recently after being harassed and even threatened by his local colleagues for working too hard. He said almost all of the people working in his department were under qualified and had been given their jobs by relatives.
This morning I found myself rooting for Ahmed and his ambitions to make a life for himself and his family, even if it means leaving his country for good.
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