Medical Assistant to President: The Age of Desire to Emigrate from Iran Has Decreased to Under 18

The social assistant to the Iranian president says that the desire to emigrate has decreased to under 18 years old and for the new generation, emigration is a 'way out.' Ali Rabiei stated on Wednesday, November 30, at a seminar examining the effects of emigration on businesses that emigration has become a political, social, and economic issue for Iran in the past decade. Mahmoud Najafi Arab, head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, also emphasized at this conference that due to the intensification of emigration among economic activists, at least $200 billion has left the country in the past decade. Statistics from the Central Bank of Iran also indicate a surge in capital flight from the country; the latest figures show that in the last 9 months of the previous solar year, over $21 billion has fled the country, and a total of $137 billion has been lost since 2012. In just the last three years, over $44 billion has left the country, which is ten times the amount of capital attracted during the same period. Mr. Najafi Arab further cited a report from the Presidential Strategic Center, stating that 'on average, 27,000 Iranians obtained residency in other countries annually over the past decade, and in 2022, about 65,000 people emigrated from Iran, with 60% of Iranians wanting to emigrate.' In recent years, numerous reports have highlighted the widespread emigration of doctors, nurses, pharmaceutical companies, startups, experts, students, athletes, and others, with factors such as extensive government repression and despair over improving living conditions, welfare, and progress under the continued rule of the Islamic Republic fueling this phenomenon. Nevertheless, the head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce identified the main reasons for capital outflow and the migration of economic activists as 'economic uncertainty and insecurity.'