Economic Impact of Brain Drain on Lebanon
Economic Impact of Brain Drain on Lebanon
Lebanon is a country that is continuously impacted by regional conflicts, from the disorder in its neighbors to the instability caused by the current COVID-19 scenario. The issues will remain: Will Lebanon persist in this long-lasting unstable situation?
The political crisis is undoubtedly going to have unfavorable effects on Lebanon’s economic situation. While significant efforts have been carried out to determine the war’s financial cost, the country is still amidst massive downturns.
Over the last few decades, Lebanon has been experiencing waves of immigration. For more than 150 years, Lebanon has sent its people abroad to seek better livelihoods. This is primarily because of the economic crisis and undemocratic communal politics. Moreover, Lebanon’s geographical location — in a diminutive region oppressed with national and global conflicts — has rendered immigration prevalent throughout history.
Lebanon is a multi-confessional Arabic country centrally situated on the Mediterranean shore in the Middle East with around 4 million inhabitants. It is marked by a sectarian power-sharing system that took birth because of its history, which comprises biased and communal political conflicts.
Therefore, Lebanon has struggled for decades to deal with the loss of humans and resources as well as brain drain as a result of continuous immigration.
More than 380,000 people from Lebanon are said to be thinking of abandoning their homeland because of the ongoing political and economic crisis. Many Lebanese don’t have relatives abroad, so networks already exist to accelerate immigration. Such a wave of immigration would have a negative impact on the country since the majority of the immigrants would be high-flying graduates. The country’s excellent healthcare system will suffer a significant hit if thousands of doctors seek careers overseas.
Lebanon has a skilled, highly-educated, professional population comprising doctors, bankers, engineers, and nurses. Most of them have university degrees, second passports, and family members who live abroad. These people who immigrate use their networks of personal and professional contacts to help them overcome migration obstacles created by various other countries.
Foreign countries certainly benefit from the Lebanese brain drain, much to the loss of Lebanon. Besides, immigration means that the country is losing more than one generation that it needs to rebuild and achieve the necessary political stability.
The Bottom Line
If Lebanon is to survive this arduous confluence of decline, the country’s skilled professionals and the youth must be offered genuine hope that dedicating their talents and passions to their homeland wouldn’t go in vain. At the same time, the Lebanese government should focus more on investments in the country’s migrants themselves, guaranteeing means of support and simplified regulations when required.
The Lebanese diaspora should also be extended support, considering they are the future of the tourism economy and the country.
The Lebanese government considers the country a tree with two branches — the inhabitants and the migrants — and both are dependent on one another. Moreover, the diaspora should also be considered an essential part of Lebanon as it supports the country in its dire economic and financial needs. The spread of the diaspora members also reinforces the political relationships between Lebanon and the diaspora hosts.
The failure to create an ideal political system that rewards the country’s brightest minds is one of the most obvious failures of this clientelist establishment. That belongs in the dustbin of history. Before the Lebanese youth embark on a ship for developed cities like London or New York, perhaps they should think of the unachievable. They can embrace a career in politics to face the economic and political collapse that forced them to consider immigration.
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