The Great Brain and Muscle Drain Crisis
Iliat NukhtanPackilvania is currently experiencing rapid emigration of its physically strong semi-skilled workers who are finding work on construction sites in rich countries and its skilled professionals and scientists.
Despite record economic growth, wages in Packilvania are artificially suppressed by the weak currency making imports expensive. Housing prices in the big cities with the highest incomes, high deposit requirements, and high mortgage interest rates make affording a home difficult even for educated professionals.
For the working class, the absence of social welfare and safety nets such as pensions and grants for the poor, means that families are forced to save for a rainy day. Near factories, power plants and construction sites where these people live and work, pollution, crime and limited government services lower the standard of living for many people.
Young people are underemployed i.e., working jobs for which they are overqualified because the highly competitive job market incentivises young people to pursue degrees instead of apprenticeships. Without protections such as mandatory leave, many people work long hours under subpar safety standards.
Additionally, the Household Registration system restricts access to public services and opportunities for people working and living outside of their place of birth. The government’s heavy-handed and authoritarian policies have resulted in intrusions and limitations in people’s private affairs.
Confronting a combination of quality of life, income and housing difficulties, many of the brightest minds and the strongest workers seek opportunities abroad. Over the past ten years, there has been an increase in people learning Staynish through night school and parents are putting their children through private tutors. Wealthier people buy second homes abroad and send their children to easier-to-access universities in foreign countries.
According to the Packilvanian Statistics and Monitoring Agency, the rate of emigration has increased by over 300% over the last ten years and the rate of return immigration has fallen by 50%. There are over a million students in universities overseas and are among the largest foreign student populations on the planet.
With the rise of great power competition in technology and science, Packilvania’s government has built up some of the best universities in the world that have spawned scientific discoveries and technological innovations that have rivalled even the mightiest and most advanced countries. Nevertheless, the outside world has proven lucrative and as Liberal Auroro-Concordan culture permeates through media and the internet, the cultural and social gap that keeps many Packilvanians from making that leap will disintegrate.