A price of one billion IRR is considered for anyone who can prove that the claim of “first rank of brain drain in Iran” is true by providing valid documents from international organizations.

According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs quoted by Fanavarimag, excessive insistence on some friends inside and some caring people outside the country on immigration of Iranian talents and provision of face statistics have reminded us the old saying of “you said it and I believed it, then you insisted and I doubted”.

Given the current debates over the emigration of Iranian elites by those who pretend to be patriots, Fanavarimag aimed to gather valid information about the issue to raise the public knowledge based on its mission, for which it was able to publish some contents quoting valid international statistics, which are in conflict with the previously stated wrong statistics.

Meanwhile, the economic counselor of the European Nation among all of the thinkable comments on this issue attracted the most attention, which stated:

“Abbas Milani, economic advisor to the European Union (!) has expressed: the volume of emigration of elites from the country is notable. According to the statistics of the international money foundation in 2009, Iran was ranked first from 91 countries of the world in terms of brain drain. In this regard, 180 individuals with higher education emigrate from Iran on a yearly basis”. This somehow compassionate statement was expressed by a person who preferred living outside of Iran.

In his inaccurate statement, that supported by non-documented evidence, he claims that according to the report of international money foundation in Iran, Iran was ranked first in the world in terms of brain drain. However, frequent searching of the website of the foundation and the internet led to no finding of such document.

Valid and Real Statistics on Emigration of Iranian Individuals

What does the actual statistic say? Valid reports on emigration and international exchange of graduated individuals by international institutes demonstrate that according to the macro data and processes of emigrants in 2013, a total of 5.231 million people have left their countries. However, Iran was not regarded as the main countries with the highest emigration rate in the world.

In the report published by the economic collaborations and development organization and another report by global bank in 2015 and 2016, Iran was among the 20 and 30 first countries with the highest emigration rate in the world, respectively. 

Moreover, according to the reported statistics, the emigration rate of Iran was 5.1% in 2015, which is lower, compared to the global mean of 2.3% and the majority of countries with similar conditions.

Actual Statistics on Emigration of Iranian Students and Elites

According to the statistics and information provided by the international counseling institute of education and regulation of the United Stated, the number of international students of this countries increased from 3.1 million in 1990 to five million in 2015, where Iran was not regarded as the countries with high rate of emigration.

According to this information, the first countries with the highest student emigration rate to advanced countries are China, Russia, South Korea, and India, respectively (OECD, 2015).

This report also emphasizes that with 32758 students in the country, Iran was not among the top 10 countries with the highest emigration rate.

After the comparison of the document published by the international valid institutes regarding the claims of fans of brain drain in Iran, this question is raised that what is the meaning of this amount of effort and insistence on showing unfavorable condition of Iranian elites?

At the end, the team of fanavarimag announced that a reward of one billion IRR will be provided for anyone who can prove that the statistics on brain drain of Iran are accurate by providing valid documents and reports by the international money foundation.