Stop the brain drain [Archives:2004/749/Letters to the Editor]

Mohamed Saleh Haidar
[email protected]
I am writing this letter with great sadness and despair from the bottom of my heart because of the ongoing immigration of Yemeni to other countries instead of participation in the building and development of their own country.
Yesterday night I went to my friend to bid farewell to his son who had earlier come back to Yemen from London after graduating as a computer scientist in information security. Apparently he replied to an announcement on the internet of a vacant job in the USA with a good payment. He applied to it, and won the job and now he has left to the USA.
I asked his father why he left Yemen even though he could have looked harder for a good job. But his father said he decided to go to live there and obtain a green card and then the US nationality which would enable him to get a job with a marvelous pay along with dignity and respect in the USA and elsewhere.
He added that his son believed that with a US citizenship, his future and the future of his children would be safer and guaranteed in all aspects.
Thus, we lost another well-educated man who could have trained many others in his field and brought great benefit to his home country.
I believe it is time for our government to be more concerned about this ongoing brain drain to put an end to it before we end up deprived of all our educated men and women.
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