According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, Parviz Karami, secretary of knowledge-based economy, technology and science development headquarter had an interview with “Shargh Newspaper”, which is presented below:

Shargh: we have recognized the term “brain term” for quite some time now. To date, numerous discussions, opinions and contexts have been stated and presented in this area. However, this issue is more emphasized today due to conflicting statistics on the emigration of Iranian elites, graduates and students. Some people present high emigration rate of Iranian elites and some provide reports without confirmed validity. To find more information in this regard, we had an interview with Parviz Karami, advisor to the vice president for science and technology affairs and secretary of the knowledge-based economy, technology and science development headquarter to learn about his opinion on the emigration condition of elites and “brain drain” with a simpler language. In this interview, Karami rejects many claims made based on reports of international institutes and provides new statistics.

Emigration of Iranian elites to other parts of the world, which is known as brain drain, has been a matter of debate for some time now. Do your official statistics confirm this as well? For instance, one of the officials has recently announced that 180 thousand individuals emigrated in 2015. There is another report quoted from the international monetary fund in 2009, in which the high emigration rate of Iran is pointed out. What is your opinion about these statistics?

These statistics are definitely wrong and inaccurate. The same applies for the report quoted from the international monetary fund in 2009 since there has been no such report. Sometimes, there are some analyses of the critical condition of the country in some meetings regarding the areas of emigration of elites, brain drain, and reduced IQ, which have led to serious and challenging debates in political and specialized gatherings. However, there are two possibilities. Fortunately, the majority of the analyses presented in the media are not valid or are based on personal experiences and limited experiences of amateurs, which might not be adequately complying with the truth. On the other hand, the trend of emigration and international displacement of graduated citizens (in a simpler language, the elite society) is one of the issues that is more monitored by many countries and official and valid domestic and foreign reports are published about them, which are considered as the basis for decision making. Therefore, given the importance of elites in the politics of a government, there is a great need to accurate and more scientific attention, as well as monitoring and control of changes of this field. However, this is often performed biased and by those against the system. For instance, in one case that is repeated so many times, there is a false claim expressed by people like Parviz Dastmalchi or Abbas Milani. This is part of their statements: “according to the report by the international monetary fund in 2009, Iran was ranked first among 91 countries in terms of brain drain, and about 180 thousand individuals with higher academic degrees emigrate from Iran every year. In the past few years, brain drain has damaged the economy of Iran 300 times more than the Iran-Iran war.” There have been some other statistics with more political aspects than reality. However, we confirmed the falsehood of this claim after accurate assessments and reviews. Statistics show otherwise. Following the same false claim by Milani, one of the news agencies recently announced that anyone with the claim of “the first rank of brain drain” quoting from the report by the international monetary fund will be awarded one billion IRR if they are able to prove their claim with valid documents. I also announce it here that if Mr. Milani or any other individual claims that the international monetary fund has made right claims about the emigration of Iranian elites in 2009 and can provide evidence, we will provide them with one billion IRR.

Have you conducted research on this issue? Or you are still in the middle of the process?

We have performed some studies and assessments and we are seriously following up this issue. To this end, we have aimed to provide a clear image of the emigration condition of students through technology research school and by referring to valid international statistics and available databases, such as United Naitons, UNESCO, global bank, the organization for economic co-operation and development and information resources provided by some major immigrant-accepting countries, such as America. The result of these efforts has been provided in the form of a book with the title of “comparative evaluation of condition of Iran in terms of emigration and international displacement of graduates”.

Can you provide a summary of these studies and evaluations on the emigration of elites, or as you put it, graduates?

You see, there is an important issue here, which is the presence of two policies in immigrant-accepting countries, including “attraction of experts with great expertise” and “integration of the immigrants with hosts”. On the other hand, the emigrant-sending countries have two policies of maintaining the top talents and experts or preventing brain drain and using non-citizen elites or cycle of brans. In fact, there is a hidden conflict between immigrant-accepting and emigrant-sending parties, some of which have won and some have failed.

So what about all of these statements presented in the media, which are in contrast to your opinion? Where do they receive their numbers and statistics?

As I said before, some people distribute false information only due to their ignorance and lack of knowledge and some due to enmity and their politics in order to destroy Iran and create disappointment in its youth. As I explained, an analytical news agency has appointed a prize (one billion IRR) for anyone who can prove the report by the global bank. However, no one has brought an evidence up to this day. Nevertheless, there are some proof behind the research are provided, which are not from us and are presented by international institutes and even immigrant-accepting countries. They have claimed that Iran has had a negative growth in this area and there has been a significant reduction in the emigration rate of students and graduates of Iran. According to the report by the emigration office of Canada, which has presented valid and more accurate information on its website, 2354 Iranian students emigrated to this country in 2015, which means the 12^th rank among the foreign students. In addition, the total number of Iranian emigrants in Canada in 2017 was six thousand and 485 individuals, which has had a significant reduction compared to 2016 (11 thousand and 665 individuals). For instance, the immigration office of the United States has announced that the rank of Iran in terms of sending students to this country has decreased five times than the beginning of the Islamic revolution. At that time, Iran was ranked first with 57 thousand students in America. However, according to the statistics provided by this office in 2016, China has been allocated the first rank in this regard with 328 thousand and 547 students, followed by India, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Canada, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brazil, Japan and Mexico. Therefore, the Islamic republic of Iran has ranked 11^th in terms of sending students to the United States. Neverhteless, the number of emigrants from Saudi Arabia in America is five times greater than resident Iranian students in this country. In another part of the report, despite the increased population of Iranian students by 27 times, compared to the beginning of the Islamic revolution, the number of current students has decreased five times in America. As you see, the report of this office confirms that the claims by some media on disastrous rate of brain drain in Iran over the past years has been wrong.

Could please provide more details, for instance the exact numbers?

Yes, of course. One of the interesting issues is that the Islamic republic of Iran has not been among the top 20 countries according to the report of the organization for economy and cooperation development in 2015. Moreover, Iran was “not” among the 30 top countries with highest emigration rate in the report by the global bank in 2016. By referring to these evidence, we could say with confidence that Iran IS NOT among the major countries of the world with highest emigration rate.

Could you present accurate statistics on the emigration rate of Iranians?

Of course. I have to say that the emigration rate of Iranian was 1.5% in 2013, which is lower than the global rate of 3.2% and the majority of countries with similar conditions. The references of all of these statistics are provided in the mentioned book, which can be downloaded in the form of a PDF file.

Is this statistic related to the emigration of Iranian elites or the net rate of Iranian emigration?

This is the net rate of our countrymen.

Now, let’s talk about the hot issue of emigration of Iranian graduates and students!

Before that, let me state a summarized statistics on the global condition in this regard. After review of the global statistics of international students and their displacement over the past two decades, a four-time increase was observed. According to the statistics and information provided by the international counseling institute of education and rules, the number of international students increased from 1.3 million in 1990 to five million in 2014. The most important destinies of international students in the 20^th century were English-speaking countries, including America, England, Canada and Australia. However, today, other countries, especially Asian countries, have been able to attract students and competition over these countries has been elevated by students. These statistics are related to an international valid institute. However, in terms of the condition of Iran, I have to say that according to the statistics by the organization for economy and cooperation development, Iran was “not” among the countries with highest rate of student emigration to advanced countries. I emphasize the fact that Iran is “NOT” among these countries. ‌meanwhile, countries such as China, Russia, South Korea and India are the first four countries with the highest emigration rate of students to advanced countries.

Are there any specific statistics about this issue?

Yes. According to the updated and valid international reports, a total of 2315 million individuals left their countries in 2014. However, Iran was not among the first emigrant-sending countries. Moreover, in a report by the organization for economy and cooperation development in 2015 and another report by the global bank in 2016, Iran was not among the 20 and 30 first countries. In this regard, the emigration rate of Iran to the total population was 1.5% in 2015, which is below the global mean (3.2%) and the majority of countries with similar conditions. Moreover, according to the statistics and information by the international counseling institute of education and law of America, the number of international students increased from 3.1 million in 1990 to five million in 2014, and Iran is not among the first countries with high emigration rate of students. However, the first four countries in this respect are China, Russia, South Korea, and India (OECD, 2015). With 32 thousand and 758 students, Iran was not introduced by OECD to be among the 10 first countries with the highest emigration rate. Therefore, the final report of the OECD on emigrated individuals indicated a total of 845 thousand Iranians emigrating to countries of OECD, which is equal to 1.5% of the total country and below the half of the global mean (3.2%) and less than one-third of the mean of European countries (5%). On the other hand, according to the report by the immigration office of America (www.migrationpolicy.org), America received more than 1.4 million foreign students in 2015. This information has been obtained based on the number of issued IF visas during more than one academic year. The destinies of foreign students in America have significantly changed in the past few years. In 2015-2016, China sent the highest number of students to America (31%), followed by India (14%), South Korea (7%), Saudi Arabia (6%) and Canada (3%). Iran was ranked 11^th with 12 thousand and 356 students in this country.

What is the actual cause of this decrease in the emigration rate of Iranian graduates?

I believe that it could be due to high penetration of higher education and establishment of new knowledge-based companies and startup environment in Iran in the past years.

So, according to your statements and statistics collected from international valid institutes, the issue of brain drain is not drastic in Iran.

As I said, statistics have shown that the number of graduated emigrants, meaning those with academic degrees, is significantly lower than many other countries. According to a joint report between the united nations and OECD, Iran is categorized below two percent in terms of the index of emigration of graduates to the total population. Therefore, by referring to the statistics by international valid institutes, it could be stated that brain drain in Iran is supported by no evidence. In this condition, the media must aid us in preventing the distribution of unnecessary rumors on emigration and brain drain. In addition, managers must be more sensitive toward this issue and have logical responses to the false statistics. It is important to note that even leaving of one person is not good for us, and we need to return those who have left, which can be possible with one-tenth of the money required to fund a student. However, we have some challenges in some specific fields and universities, and those who leave must be returned quickly.