Brain drain blights economy

In his flat in central Tehran, Araz Alipour counts on one hand his college friends who have chosen to build a career in Iran. "Easily 90% of them have gone overseas," the 29-year-old software developer said, reflecting on a middle-class flight that has seen many of the nation's best scientists and engineers leave, writes Golnar Motevalli for Bloomberg News.

Photographs of new cars, homes and expanding families posted on Facebook and Instagram document some of the tens of thousands of Iranian lives transplanted each year, mainly to Europe and North America. Seyyed Hassan Hosseini, deputy chief of Iran's National Elites Foundation, said on 20 April that over the past two years at least 40% of top-performing students in science and engineering left the Persian Gulf nation.

The flood of emigrants has rung alarm bells at the highest level. President Hassan Rouhani prioritised stemming the tide of 'fleeing brains' during his election campaign last year. As global companies plot a post-sanctions strategy for Iran amid optimism that nuclear talks may ease its isolation, they could find their ambitions thwarted by a skills shortage.
Full report on the Bloomberg Businessweek site