LAHORE: Pakistan registered 727,381 workers for overseas employment last year through the Bureau of Emigration & Overseas Employment (BE&OE) and the Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC), according to the Economic Survey 2024-25.
Such figures often fuel warnings of an accelerating “brain drain.” Analysts argue that talent is fleeing and the country is “bleeding its brightest minds.”
Those concerns reflect real pressures at home: stubborn unemployment, particularly among educated youth, and what many describe as an entrenched culture of nepotism, corruption, and favoritism.
For young Pakistanis, the gap between achievement and opportunity has widened. A 2023 Gallup Pakistan survey reported that 62% of young professionals would prefer to work abroad if given the chance.
Yet migration is also one of the country’s strongest economic pillars. Overseas Pakistanis sent home $38.5 billion in remittances last year, the single largest source of foreign exchange.
These inflows support households, stabilize reserves, and sustain businesses. Economists say many expatriates now work as “investors, founders, and connectors,” linking Pakistan to global markets.
Data also challenges the conventional narrative. Research by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) shows that more than 765,000 Pakistanis migrated in 2022-23, but only 2% were highly qualified, while the rest were skilled or semi-skilled. “This isn’t brains fleeing,” one researcher noted. “It’s a workforce on the move.”
Global trends reinforce that view. India, which received $123 billion in remittances last year, frames migration as a strategic advantage. Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has dismissed “brain drain” as “a term from the last century.”
Academic studies echo this shift. A landmark review in science finds that high-skilled mobility often results in “brain gain.” University of Michigan economist Dean Yang said, “Migration creates positive feedback loops; people study more when they see pathways abroad; remittances fund education; diaspora networks bring back technology and trade.”
International examples show similar effects. When 27,000 Filipino nurses moved to the United States, more than 80,000 new nurses were trained at home. India’s surge in IT graduates followed easier tech visa policies abroad. Managed mobility, researchers argue, expands the talent pool rather than depletes it.
With a diaspora of nine million, Pakistan stands at a similar turning point. Overseas Pakistanis send back billions, launch companies, and represent the country across boardrooms, universities, and political institutions worldwide.
The challenge, experts say, is not to restrict mobility but to build conditions that encourage return. That requires predictable policy, fair taxation, and a governance climate where “ideas, not influence, are currency.”
Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir summed up the shift, calling overseas Pakistanis an example of “brain gain, not brain drain.”
Global success stories reinforce the point. India celebrated when Satya Nadella became Microsoft’s CEO and Kamala Harris became US vice president. Pakistanis felt similar pride when Syeda Warsi entered the British cabinet or Sadiq Khan, the son of a Pakistani bus driver, became London’s mayor.
Analysts argue Pakistan must adopt the same mindset. Each dollar sent home, each business link forged abroad, and each professional succeeding globally, they say, “is not a drain; it’s a dividend.”
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