CAIRO -

The uproar in the Egyptian street continues in the case of squash player Mohamed El-Shorbagy's decision to play in the name of England, but it did not stop at the sports controversy only, but also went beyond it to the question about the government's responsibility for the departure of talented people from the country.

Al-Shorbagy, the former world champion and ranked third in the world, justified his decision not to receive any support from the relevant authorities in Egypt during his career, and that his previous achievements were achieved by his own effort.

And between those rejecting and supportive of Al-Shorbagy’s decision, the discussion returned extensively about the continued bleeding of Egyptian talents and minds abroad in all sports, scientific and professional fields alike, and about the causes of this phenomenon, which costs the country huge development and economic losses.

Expressing his happiness to represent the #England squash team, the former world champion and world number three #Mohamed_Shorbagy says that his achievements with #Egypt were achieved by his own effort without receiving any support pic.twitter.com/58FeEE4lr0

- Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) June 6, 2022

continuous bleeding

Several sports models preceded Al-Shorbagy in his decision, such as the equestrian champions Abdul Qader Al-Saeed and Sameh Al-Dahan, as the first chose to represent Belgium, while the second chose to represent the United Kingdom.

After being neglected in Egypt after his injury, wrestler Tarek Abdel Salam turned to Bulgaria, which provided him with the appropriate support to win the gold medal at the European Championship 2017, along with dozens of other models.

The talk expanded outside of sports to various scientific fields, revealing the enormity of the phenomenon of Egyptian brain drain. During the past decades, Egypt witnessed a state of talent drain, especially in vital fields such as medicine, nuclear energy, electronics, astronomy, space and economics, according to previous studies by the Academy of Scientific Research.

Thousands of Egyptian researchers travel abroad annually, in search of the minimum possibilities to complete their studies and scientific research.

Muhammad Al-Shorbagy is not alone, every young man if he gets the opportunity will not hesitate, 70 thousand doctors in Saudi Arabia, 8000 in England and 60 thousand in the rest of the world, 3000 programmers in Germany and 86 thousand scientists, including rare specialties outside Egypt.


Egypt The military is a miserable present and a miserable future pic.twitter.com /AagTGaFJRg

— Abdullah bin Masoud (@Abdullah2022012) June 11, 2022

Before we get angry at a virtuous player between great or small capabilities and care that have been mocked in Egypt over the years for more generous conditions in England, I grieve for the thousands of researchers and students who emigrated and scattered in search of the minimum possibilities to complete their message in the service of the nation of Iqra, which only reads Game and entertainment news pic.twitter.com/sysFvrVoWX

— Dr.

Essam Heggy / Dr.

Issam Heggy (@essamheggy) June 7, 2022

shocking numbers

Against the background of the discussion about El-Shorbagy, social media pioneers shared the results of a study conducted by the World Bank on talent migration around the world between January 2017 and December 2019.

This study showed that Egypt lost many talents in vital fields, such as research, software, information technology, and artificial intelligence.

The study showed that the countries that benefited most from these Egyptian talents were the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Canada, Kuwait and America.

Thread


about Al-Shorbagy's decision from a broader perspective.


The World Bank and Linkedin worked on a project to study talent migration around the world and this is the stats of #Egypt.

- The most important areas that Egypt is losing:


No. 1: Research,


then utilities, software and IT


, and at the level of skills, all are highly skilled needs such as AI pic.twitter.com/rBRo4f4Y5E

— Dr.

Ahmed S. Rashad (@ahmshoukry) June 8, 2022

vital areas

But the study did not include several areas in which Egypt annually loses thousands of brains, especially the medical field, which is witnessing continuous bleeding due to low financial and moral appreciation, and the absence of suitable conditions for work, according to doctors.

According to a study by the Technical Office of the Egyptian Ministry of Health, the number of doctors working inside Egypt is 82,000, out of 212,000 registered with the Physicians Syndicate, at a rate of 38%, which means that about 62% of doctors in the health system have left the health system, and most of them work outside the country.

Another statistic of the Physicians Syndicate indicates that about 7,000 doctors migrate annually due to "arbitrary measures" against doctors, and about 10,000 doctors resign from their jobs in government hospitals to work in private clinics.

Last February, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi commented on the emigration of many doctors abroad, pointing out that the salaries they receive in Egypt do not suit them, and that the state cannot give them higher salaries.

The matter is not much different in the field of engineering, as figures issued by the Syndicate of Engineers indicate that about 40% of the 750,000 Egyptian engineers work abroad.

In 2015, statistics showed that the number of Egyptian engineers working in Saudi Arabia was about 70,000, 35,000 in the Emirates, and 15,000 to 20,000 in Qatar.

The number of human doctors in the world is decreasing..because of the difficulty, length and cost of studying..even if you do not achieve sufficient income, appreciation and protection, as is available to doctors in the poorest African countries, and the details are easy to access..we will not find doctors here..this is the real thing, unfortunately in our country we are not aware of its danger.

— Salahaldeen Nada (@salahn71) June 11, 2022

Lack of appreciation and care

The absence of both appreciation and care causes the emigration of scientific competencies from Egypt, and according to many statistics, there are tens of thousands of Egyptian scientists and experts living and working in other countries.

The "Egypt Can" Foundation announced in August 2019 the registration of 30,000 Egyptian scientists abroad, and expected that the final number in the comprehensive database that it prepares would be many times that number, but it did not issue any subsequent data with the new numbers.

Several years ago, the Federation of Egyptians Abroad issued a statistic on the number of Egyptian scholars and academics residing abroad, which showed the presence of about 86 thousand Egyptian scholars and academics around the world.

The union's data indicated that Egyptian scientists abroad, including 1,883 scientists in rare nuclear specialties, in addition to 42 university presidents.

The Union explained that it relied for its information on these statistics on the Union and Statistics Center of the United Nations, some research centers in Europe and America and associations, and associations of scholars and heads of Muslim communities abroad.

In 2019, the Egyptian president demanded that countries with Egyptian talents and minds share the proceeds of their scientific research.

During the activities of the Arab-African Youth Forum, which was held in Aswan in March 2019, Sisi said, "We don't want to talk to them, and we tell them when we have a distinguished mind, we train you, and when he succeeds in a scientific research, they give us (give us) a percentage of his mind. Keep the product whose cost will bring us under consideration.

political climate

Many reasons, political, social and economic, stand behind the Egyptian brain drain.

In a field study conducted by researcher Hossam Ibrahim El-Desouky on "The Reasons for the Migration of Egyptian Minds", it showed that the most important reasons that repel Egyptian competencies are the weak financial return and the weak interest in scientific research, the violation of academic freedoms and the weak appreciation of the ruling political systems for distinguished minds, as well as the spread of administrative bureaucracy and routine.

The study showed that many competencies suffer from a misjudgment by the ruling political systems of distinguished minds, while standards based on loyalty lead to the disappearance of large numbers of competencies and the suspension of their scientific endeavor, and prompted them to think seriously about emigrating their homeland.

Another study by researcher Shaima Essam Abdel Rahman, entitled "The causes of brain drain and its economic consequences on economic development in Egypt", showed that the political climate plays a major role in the migration of brilliant minds, especially in light of the persecution of the politically different and the spread of corruption and nepotism.

The study indicated that the absence of a system of good governance, weak transparency and accountability, and a decline in the margin of freedoms during more than 30 years, formed a political climate that repels experiences and signs of spreading frustration in the future.

Observers fear that the problem of Egyptian brains migration abroad will increase due to the state's failure to understand the reasons for migration and work to address them, and to be satisfied with pre-packaged authoritarian decisions.

In a recommendation issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics in 2020 regarding the migration of highly skilled, it called for the need to develop programs and policies that work to attract talent by reviewing wage levels and providing an appropriate scientific climate, with a focus on the necessary skills and disciplines that Egyptian society needs.