Parallel to the successful arrival of the “Perseverance” spacecraft on Mars, the attention of Tunisians has focused on the Tunisian engineer Mohamed Obeid, who works within the team of the “Mars 2020” project as deputy chief mechanical engineer.
An Arab and Tunisian tribute to the success story of Obeid, who is considered one of the most important “competencies” in his field, but the feelings of pride that Tunisians showed on social networking sites mixed with confusion and questions about the possibility of the emergence of the engineer Mohamed Obeid and his ilk if they had not left the country and about the fate of the Tunisian talent who preferred to work in Tunisia.
Brain drain from an option to a phenomenon
Young engineer Saqr Mannaei told JDD that he preferred to settle in France after traveling with a scholarship from the Tunisian state for outstanding students to obtain a master’s degree, explaining that a French company offered him a financial support in return for obtaining a doctorate because the topic of his research aroused its interest.
Mannai clarified that he would not have had this opportunity had he returned to Tunisia as soon as he obtained his master’s degree, noting that the issue is not only related to the material side, as scientific research in Tunisia does not receive the attention of successive governments despite its importance, which emerged especially in conjunction with the health pandemic that distinguished countries over others due to how serious the research is, as he says.
In a related context, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development confirmed that about 94 thousand Tunisian “competencies” left the country between 2011 and 2018, 84 percent of whom went to Europe, and they are mostly researchers, businessmen, doctors and academics, and Tunisia is the biggest loser in all of this, as the education of a medical student costs the country nearly 100,000 dinars annually, according to the same report.
In addition to the field of medicine, there are also 8,000 administrators, 1,200 businessmen, and 1,464 teachers and professors, who left the country between 2014 and 2015.
The report considered that the reasons for the brain drain are mainly material, as these latter earn 5 to 10 times the value of their salaries in Tunisia.
In addition, despite the increase in the state budget for the year 2021, by 2.55 percent, equivalent to 45,409 million dinars, the budget for scientific research is still very low, in the range of 1,828 million dinars, knowing that in 2020 it was in the range of 1,782,591 million dinars.
“A National Project”
Young Saqr Al-Mannai asserted that among the reasons that make young people choose to leave is the absence of a national project to embrace “competencies” and even for those who do not get good grades in their academic careers, European countries seek to integrate them into other professions and specializations in accordance with their choice without the need to waste decades at school and university runways.
Mannaei believes that the state is able to stop the falsification of legal and irregular migration by providing reasons for hope for young people of all educational and academic levels, calling for work to create opportunities for creativity and free thinking. He also emphasized that the political and social crises that have recurred over the past ten years make parents think of a better future for their children away from “chaos and insecurity,” according to him.
According to a questionnaire conducted by the Center for Strategic Studies, 78% of the respondents expressed their desire to emigrate, which is considered a very high number. 55% of students who decide to complete their studies abroad do not return to Tunisia afterwards, but rather settle down to work there. Western Europe is the preferred destination for Tunisian brains, as it attracts 60% of them, while Canada and North America receive between 25 and 30% while 15 % emigrate toward the Gulf countries.
