The Al Istiqlal MP discusses the brain drain of approximately 10,500 Moroccan executives.
Rabat – More and more Moroccan “brains” are migrating to countries where their skills and qualifications afford more financial benefit or career advancement.
The brain drain has become an alarming issue in the last few years.
MP Omar Hjira of Al Istiqlal party stated, in his speech at the monthly plenary session of the House of Representatives, that more than 10,430 administrative and technical executives left Morocco in 2018.
Hjira, revealed that this number included more than 8,000 administrative and technical executives, 1,200 businessmen, 600 engineers, and 630 doctors.
Hjira said that these executives, who have a stable income, would never have left their country if they had received sufficient attention from the government.
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Hjira further stated that the currency transfer of Moroccans living abroad reached $7 billion, and their deposits in Moroccan banks are estimated at 20% of the total national savings.
Hjira stressed that this brain drain to the United States, Canada, and Europe is due to the lack of consideration given to these competent individuals in Morocco and the government’s lack of responsiveness to their expectations.
This phenomenon is all the more worrying, adds the MP, as 70% of Moroccans living abroad are of different nationalities or are being naturalized. Hjira also specified that half of Moroccans residing in more than 100 countries were born abroad.
More than 70% of Moroccans wish to leave the country for several reasons such as financial pressures or the corruption within the country, according to an international survey conducted by Arab Barometer.